Chris Sutton rules out Celtic signing £3 million Hearts player

Celtic are enjoying a decent run of form, at least domestically. But they might find themselves in a tough situation in January. The Hoops do not have a lot of squad depth in certain positions. On the other hand, the AFC Asian Cup is scheduled to start early next year. Both Kyogo Furuhashi and Oh Hyeon-gyu might potentially be involved.

If Kyogo and Oh are picked up their respective national teams, that would leave Celtic without a striker. Not the ideal situation to be in by any stretch of the imagination.

Thus, one would be hoping that Celtic sign another striker in January. Quite a few names have been doing the rounds of the rumour mill in that regard.

Mathias Kvistgaarden of Brondby was linked with Celtic in the summer and could potentially still be of interest. Sydney van Hooijdonk could be available in January as well, as he has struggled for game time at Bologna. And there have been some suggestions that Lawrence Shankland of Hearts would be a decent option to consider.

Chris Sutton rules out Celtic signing £3 million-rated Hearts player

Sutton does not appear to be certain that Celtic would make a move for Shankland. He wrote in his column in the Daily Record:

"Some people have chucked Lawrence Shankland’s name into the frame. Forget about it."

The former England international striker continued:

"Celtic can afford him – but he just doesn’t fit the bill. That’s not to say I don’t rate him as a player."

Sutton further explained:

"He would probably score goals for Celtic. But are they going to spend maybe £3m or £4m on a 28-year-old back up? Highly unlikely."

On paper, signing someone like Shankland would make a ton of sense for Celtic. He is already proven in the Premiership and is someone who has scored consistently for a number of clubs throughout the course of his career.

But Shankland is 28 years of age. That does not really appear to fit Celtic’s transfer vision these days. Also, would the Hoops shell out a £3 million to £4 million transfer fee just based on one month?

On the other hand, one could argue that they have shelled out a similar fee on a number of ‘project’ signings over the years, many of whom went on to do nothing at Parkhead. Shankland would come with pretty much a guarantee of goals in a situation of need.