Will Celtic’s MLS loan duo ever make it at Parkhead?

Andrew Gutman

Gutman, a 23 year old left back, is now on loan at MLS side FC Cincinnati, joining them in August 2019 with some international clearance paperwork to finalise. The season ended shortly afterwards in October and Gutman featured in eight games, but only managed to come on as a substitute for one minute in each of the last two games.

When the 2020 season started in March he was again brought on as a sub in two games, for a total of 18 minutes. So not a lot to base his form on so far at the Cincinnati club. They do now have a new manager appointed in late May, Japp Staam – a man who knows about defending. There could be a great opportunity for Gutman to show what he can do for a new manager over the coming weeks in training and that early tournament. Gutman himself recognised in a recent club TV interview that a new manager coming in means a clean slate for all the players. And with the Florida matches coming up counting for league points there’s plenty of motivation for the players and himself to do well.

Whether we will see him in a Celtic shirt again after his work in pre-season with the Celtic squad last year remains to be seen. As a left back there may be a gap in the squad with Jonny Hayes released and both rumours and doubts about Boli Bolingoli for the critical season ahead. Greg Taylor may be in pole position but have we cover in depth? Could Gutman, already on the books be an option? That’d be high risk in a critical season for Celtic. Particularly with limited match playing time . On balance, it’s probably unlikely and then you have to think that with almost half his contract gone, it’s perhaps not going to work out at Celtic.