Chris Sutton has warned the new Celtic signing that he needs to make an impact soon or his future at the club could already be in jeopardy.
When you are at Celtic you are expected to win every match, especially with 10IAR up for grabs. Unfortunately, that is not something that the club has done much of recently, winning just one of their last 5 games. As a result, the pressure is on Neil Lennon at the moment to produce results or he might end up getting the sack.
As a result, the manager is expected to make a few changes in order to bring his side back on track. And one big decision he has already taken is to start Scott Bain over Vasilis Barkas in the last three games. Now, while it has been reported that the Greek international was injured, he did make the bench against Lille and the Cup win over Aberdeen.
And Chris Sutton believes that Barkas has to prove his worth to the club if he wants to keep his place in the starting XI over Bain. Speaking on the Daily Record Podcast, he said:
"I see the situation as pretty simple. Neil Lennon thinks that Scott Bain is a better goalkeeper than Barkas at this moment in time.I don’t buy into, and I know Barkas had the shoulder injury, but the bottom line is if he was fit enough for the bench he was fit enough to play in France.In that respect I think that the penalty save from Scott Bain was big and, am I still convinced about Scott Bain? No I’m not, there were other moments in the game that were hiding behind the settee time.But Neil Lennon will see him train every day, he’ll get the advice from Stevie Woods the goalkeeping coach and at this moment in time Neil Lennon is not giving Scott Bain a run out for charity, he’s getting a run out because he wants his best goalkeeper in and Scott Bain will keep the gloves at this moment in time and Barkas has really got to pull his finger out and show Neil Lennon and Celtic that Neil is wrong to pick Bain ahead of him.It’s an issue to which I have to say, you mentioned Craig Gordon, and I’ve been critical of Craig in the past. You look at the standards that Craig has set in the past, you look at the standard of goalkeeper last season- we did a column or even on the Pod last season saying that Fraser Forster should be the number one target for Celtic this season.Of course it probably was, the fact that they didn’t get that over the line is a big deal. His standards were so high. Celtic were like having a wall at the back and that was largely down to having Fraser and his presence in goal.This season they don’t have that presence and that is a huge problem. You look across the city, and whether you like it or not Rangers are a different proposition and that’s because they’re clean sheet record has been staggeringly good. And in that respect, this is going to be the toughest title race in years."
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Barkas certainly has his qualities and did pick up an injury against AC Milan, which might be the main reason why he has not played recently. But he has not shown enough in a Celtic shirt yet to make him a guaranteed starter for Lennon.
On the contrary, Bain’s recent performances could be a cause for concern to the Greek keeper. He saved a penalty against Lille and then went on to keep a clean-sheet against Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup semi-final. And while neither was a great performance, good enough might be good enough in the manager’s book at this point of time.
Despite his big money move to Parkhead from AEK Athens in the summer, unfortunately for Barkas, this could mean a long time sitting on the bench waiting for his opportunity.