Celtic’s Edinburgh Raid Continues?

I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry at the news that Chris Killen has become Celtic’s latest signing.

The funny side obviously comes from the fact that Hibs have now lost yet another member of their Brazil 1970-esque footballing dream team to the Scottish champions. But the down side is that we would appear to be going back to the days of Celtic and Rangers going around plucking the talent from all of the other teams in the league, hence weakening their opposition in this country. They’ll probably then start moaning about the lack of domestic competition hindering their progress in Europe as well, but that’s another argument!

Seriously though, it now looks as though Hibs are becoming Celtic’s ‘feeder’ club doesn’t it? Gary Caldwell, Derek Riordan and Scott Brown are already Celtic players and now Killen. There were also quotes attributed to ‘Benji’ earlier this week saying that he wouldn’t mind moving there either. Where will it all end? Maybe it’s a grand masterplan devised by John Collins in cahoots with the Celtic board, whereupon JC returns to Parkhead as manager next season as well! I’m kidding obviously, but the trend is surely a bit worrying. If we throw in Kevin Thomson’s move to Rangers and Celtic’s capture of Steven Pressley and Paul Hartley from Hearts last season, that’s quite an alarming number of players moving from Edinburgh along the M8 isn’t it? I still wouldn’t be surprised if Julien Brellier ends up at Parkhead as well.

There is a positive side to this for Hearts and Hibs, though. Look at it this way: if these guys represent the best that the Old Firm can do then do we really have much to worry about from them in the near future? I mean, the likes of Pressley and Hartley pretty much walked straight into Celtic’s first team, but neither of those were even Hearts’ best players. Riordan and Brown were definitely two of the better players at Easter Road, probably the two best actually, but given the money that Hibs got for Brown in particular, I’d say that the club from Leith have arguably got the better deal out of this. Particularly given the fact that Riordan is too much of a ned these days to even be considered seriously as a professional footballer. So unless they start signing some players of real quality, the Old Firm will continue to be as average as they’ve been for the last couple of years.

Many people have criticised Vladimir Romanov for introducing a lot of foreign players into the Hearts team, but one of his reasons for doing so was to avoid the mentality that your average Scottish footballer tends to have, namely an inferiority complex and/or desire to play for one of the Old Firm. Let’s face it, how many examples have we seen of players who are supposedly ‘dyed in the wool’ Hearts or Hibs fans leaving to sign for one of the Glasgow clubs at the first opportunity? Too many. So in that respect, despite the fact that I’ve disagreed with many of his managerial methods, I would have to agree with Romanov. I would prefer to have players less likely to be like that, even if that means the entire first XI being foreign.

The other question that’s bound to come out of the Killen signing, is what do Celtic’s fans make of all this? Surely they’ll feel a bit underwhelmed? I’m surprised that a club of their size and alleged wealth these days would appear to be setting their sights so low. I’m not saying that these guys are bad players, but they’re not of the required class to take Celtic to the next level in Europe and surely that’s where they want to go? Evidently not it would appear.

Does anyone want to buy Mikoliunas?!