The Oliver Burke/Celtic Loan Deal Looks A Bit Odd
Celtic have brought in their first signing of the winter transfer window, with the club’s website confirming that they’d agreed a deal to bring Scotland international Oliver Burke on a six month loan deal.
While I don’t believe the move is a particularly bad one, I am not sure it makes a lot of sense either.
Burke has been used just three times (all from the bench) in The English Championship this season. All of those appearances have seen him being used on the right wing.
The forward can also play on the other wing or as a number ten, but in all honesty do the Scottish Premiership champions need another winger in their squad or an attacking midfielder?
Burke’s been mainly used as a right winger during his short career and that’s where James Forrest has been used to great effect this term. In the last month or so, Scott Sinclair has hit form on the left flank.
Celtic also have other wingers within their ranks like Jonny Hayes, Lewis Morgan and young Mikey Johnston. Central midfielders Callum McGregor and Ryan Christie can also be used as makeshift wide-men if needed.
McGregor and Christie also have the ability to play as number tens as can Tom Rogic and forgotten man Scott Allan.
If I was Oliver Burke I’d only move out on loan if I were guaranteed proper game time. I’m pretty sure Celtic haven’t offered him any guarantees, especially not in his favoured position.
Now some might argue that Burke is made of better stuff than some of those already at Parkhead. But is that really the case?
Yes Oliver had plenty of potential when he broke through at Nottingham Forest back in 2014 but he’s never managed to realise that potential.
Big moves followed as he first joined RB Leipzig and then West Bromwich Albion but he didn’t flourish at either club. His last league goal came in 2016 for Die Bullen.
Much was expected of him after his £15m move back to England, but he struggled to be anything other than ordinary in the Premier League. He had three bosses at West Brom, yet none of them felt he had what it took to get them out of trouble. Burke would only make two Premier League starts last term.
It was then believed that the winger would relish playing back in the English Championship but opportunities were extremely limited. I think there’s got to be a reason for that. What that is you’d have to ask his previous gaffers.
Now Celtic do have a manager that can get more out of a player in Brendan Rodgers but why can’t he get that from a Lewis Morgan?
Morgan’s career trajectory was on the up and up when he joined Celtic in the summer and he looked very decent in preseason. While Burke on the other hand has watched as his career has stalled.
Yet Lewis hasn’t managed to get a start for The Hoops in the league.
The Scottish Sun have stated that Rodgers could be willing to loan Morgan out during this month:
“They need to get games and need to play. We’ve had a number of loan enquiries. We’ve had conversations with guys we feel it would benefit to go out and play.”
“Lewis and I have had a good conversation. Even though he hasn’t been playing so much he feels he’s really developing in the culture here.”
“He’s getting to grips with the mentality of Celtic and what that entails. Again, we will see.”
“Players come here initially to play for Celtic but it’s obviously been really difficult to break into this team, especially for some of the attacking players.”
Now looking at that quote, why wouldn’t Burke suffer from the same issues Lewis Morgan has had at Celtic Park? Let’s not forget that Morgan is actually older than Oliver.
Oliver Burke needs plenty of minutes on the field if he is going to reach his potential but Celtic just can’t throw him into a title challenge at the cost of an in form player.
It just seems very odd that Celtic would bring in another team’s player and try and rebuild his confidence, instead of building a star out of one of your own.
Then we go back to the champions not bringing in players that are needed for the weak points in their team.
Celtic aren’t crying out for a winger or creative midfielder. They need a goalscoring striker, a new right-back and a long term solution for central defence. They needed all of those position filled last summer and couldn’t get their business done and they go after Burke first in this window, why?
Now if Celtic win yet another Premiership title and Oliver Burke does extremely well, what happens then? According to Burke’s parent club there’s ‘no option to buy’ included in the loan deal (Via Birmingham Live). So you could have a fantastic talent and you can’t keep him, that will really disappoint the Hoops support.
All in all, the whole deal just seems odd and a bit underwhelming. But that could change if Oliver Burke can finally reach his full potential.
Posted on January 6th, 2019 by scott
Filed under: Article
The more games that Burke gets the better.
Scott Sinclair has hit form on the left flank.
Who writes this nonsense. Have you actually watch celtic of late?
Looks to me like Burke has been brought in to compete with Sinclair for left wing place. I agree that Lewis Morgan was brought in for the same position, but he’s obviously not seen as ready to be relied upon yet. I certainly haven’t seen Scott Sinclair upping his game under pressure from Morgan. Also agree that other positions need strengthened more, but if we get a more direct attacking threat from Burke or Sinclair in the second half of the season that could make a big difference to performances.
Sinclair has scored five in his last ten games, he’s the club’s third top scorer in the league this term.
He scored a hat-trick in an important win over Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Boxing day and got the goal that won Celtic the game away to Rosenborg in the Europa League.
Burke has hardly been used on the left, so that’s a big question mark.
[…] A few weeks back I wrote an article discussing why I thought Celtic’s loan move for Oliver Burke was a bit of an odd one. […]