We’ve already seen Mikael Lustig (BBC) and Dedryck Boyata (BBC) leave Parkhead this summer and The Herald Scotland have shared a story that claims a third Hoops star could be off.
The story claims that Russian Premier League side Zenit St. Petersburg are preparing a £9m bid for Tom Rogic, although it’s also stated that considering the 26-year-old has four years left on his deal it will take at least a bid of £15m to prise the Australian away from Glasgow.
The midfielder came to the attention of the Russian club after their 2017/18 Europa League round of 32 tie where Zenit came out 3-1 winners on aggregate. It’s thought that the player prefers a move to England, but with Zenit reportedly set to offer him a lucrative contract, he may have a decision to make.
Rogic is fresh off the back of an indifferent season at Celtic, although on his day he’s a top player at this level, which we saw as he registered three assists in one game away at St. Johnstone back in October. However, with that one game seeing the player make up half of his assists for the campaign, consistency could be an issue.
Chris Sutton slammed him for his performance following the Old Firm loss to Rangers back in April when speaking to BT Sport‘s Scottish Football Extra (via the World Game), describing Rogic as ‘moving around like an OAP’, after all.
It’s not just consistency that Rogic suffers with, though. The 26-year-old has proved to be a touch injury-prone. Over the last two seasons, the midfielder has missed 28 games whilst suffering from three knee injuries, one of which he’s currently suffering from that has come just months after he went under the knife and had surgery in an attempt to fix the issue, via Transfermarkt.
With these knee issues and this season’s emergence of Ryan Christie, it wouldn’t be the daftest move to allow Rogic to leave. The 2018/19 season saw Christie used in a number of different positions, per Transfermarkt, but with his main area (16 apps) being the #10 role that Rogic usually plays in, losing the Australian would be easier to take when Christie is ready to step into his role.
Across all competitions, the Scotland international bagged 11 goals and registered 9 assists, so does look to have the ability to take up the mantle there.
The Hoops have already been given the confirmation from Peter Lawwell that Neil Lennon will have money to spend, via The Herald Scotland, although bringing in an extra few million and offloading a player who failed to feature in 28 games last season through injury, international duty and squad rotation isn’t a bad move.
Would you be happy allowing Rogic to leave, Celtic fans? Let us know!
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