Depending on who you listen to Celtic’s Dedryck Boyata is either a superb centre-back or he’s a bit of a dud.

The truth probably lies somewhere in between the two. He’s not worth £50m like John Hartson suggested but he’s also not a defensive klutz that makes mistake after mistake that some opposing supporters will let you believe.

The Belgian international played in his country’s opening three World Cup games and he gave an extremely good account of himself as Belgium won all of their group fixtures. He’d then drop out of the starting line-up as Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany returned from injury but Boyata’s performances were enough to see interest in his services rise.

Rumours are now swirling that the central defender is being monitored by Serie A side Lazio and Premier League new boys Fulham.

The player has only a year left on his current deal and while Hoops boss Brendan Rodgers wants him to stay at Parkhead, Boyata hasn’t given him any assurances that that will be the case:

“Right now, I am concentrating on the World Cup. I am not thinking about my future. “

“I still have a year on my contract and we’ll see after the summer if I continue with Celtic.”

Personally, I think it could be the perfect time for Celtic to sell the Belgian defender.

After three years in Glasgow, you could understand why the footballer himself would be interested in a move to a superior league in Serie A or the Premier League. He’s won the Scottish Premiership title three times and both domestic cups twice, what’s left for him in Scotland?

In his three seasons at Celtic, Dedryck has missed around 56 games due to injury. He’s had particular problems with thigh and knee complaints. Each time he comes back from these injury issues, the defender suffers with getting back up to speed when he returns to training and playing. It’s usually in these periods that we’ll see more mistakes creep into his game.

Boyata also suffers from lapses in concentration and if he does that in the big games then it gets highlighted.

Now he’s pretty strong in the air and is good at getting the ball to teammate, even at the World Cup and in the Champions League last season Boyata managed over 90% passing success stats.

I suppose my main issue with the international centre-back is that at twenty-seven years of age; he’s probably not going to get much better, he’s already prone to injuries and while he’s a decent player I’m not sure he’s much beyond that.

It would make complete sense to me, if Rodgers were to make the most out of his showings in Russia and sell the asset on for a premium fee.

Talk is that clubs like Fulham and Lazio are willing to pay upwards of £6m or £7m. That would represent a £4.5m profit on the player and they could get a similar type replacement for half the fee that they’d recoup in selling Boyata. If he doesn’t sign a new deal, then I doubt Celtic would want to risk losing him on a free next summer.

They say never sign anyone off the back of a good World Cup but it could be a great time to sell a player that’s never quite reached his potential and that you can’t trust won’t get injured when the season’s in full flow!

 

Posted on July 11th, 2018 by scott
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