Ally McCoist raves about ‘remarkable’ attacker who has been linked to Celtic

Away from the madness of the Celtic chat surrounding the upcoming Glasgow Derby, another story involving a player linked to the club emerges.

Earlier this afternoon we told how Celtic learned the price that they would have to pay for Queens Park Rangers defender, Jake Clarke-Salter.

A minimum of £5m could help bring the former England u21 international to Paradise this summer. But he’s not the only player that Celtic have been linked to.

With at least five positions needing to be strengthened this summer, Brendan Rodgers has a lot of work to do to prepare his team for the potential of Champions League Football next season.

Ally McCoist can’t stop talking about Sammie Szmodics

Back in March, Celtic were listed as favourites to sign Blackburn Rovers’, Sammie Szmodics, as the attacker’s goalscoring feats caught the eye of the Parkhead recruitment team. [The Scottish Sun]

In 48 appearances for Blackburn, Szmodics has hit 33 goals and created four assists as he helped Rovers battle relegation. [Transfermarkt]

And after scoring another double at the weekend as he captained his side to a win over Leicester City, Ally McCoist was raving about the Republic of Ireland international.

McCoist said [talkSPORT], “One player you (Jeff Stelling) and I speak about often but have not spoken about (today) is Sammie Szmodics, who again at the weekend, absolutely remarkable, mate, remarkable.

“His goals have probably single-handedly just about kept Blackburn in that division.

“And the Blackburn fans won’t thank me for saying it, but surely a team like Palace, surely that wouldn’t be beyond the realms of possibility for a guy like Szmodics to go there.”

Unfortunately for Celtic, Szmodics looks well out of our price range. We told back in April how the 28-year-old could cost the club upwards of £15m.

Even if Celtic did get the Champions League cash for winning the league, there is no way that we are paying that fee and the wages that will go along with that for any player, never mind a player who turns 29 in September.

So it seems like no matter how much McCoist likes this player, Celtic will have to turn their attention elsewhere and to more realistic targets for the summer transfer window.