To everyone’s surprise, Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers still seems to have Steven Caulker in his grand plans for next season. According to the Hoops boss, the player still has all the ingredients to make it at the top level and if he moves past his current problems, he is worth taking to the war. Caulker is in the last year of his contract with Queens Park Rangers and has expressed his willingness to move on from the Championship side.
Celtic are back from their pre-season tour and kicked off with a 2-0 victory over Linfield in the qualification round at Windsor Park. And following arch-rivals Rangers’ embarrassing exit from the Champions League, Rodgers has all the more pressure on himself to prove at the top level. The Scottish Premiership champions, who went the entire season unbeaten last term, would expect to surpass the group stages of the Champions League this time.
Scottish football is reeling in mediocrity at the moment with hardly any side from the league making it to a decent distance in either the Champions League or the Europa League. Rodgers does have a balanced side at his disposal but, he would want to go for a centre-back, given that Dedryck Boyata is still out for three months and would definitely miss most of the first half of the season.
And given his media talks ahead of the Champions League tie, it is more than clear that the manager is a big fan of the Championship defender. He said, “I spoke to Steven as a former manager. The kid messaged me. He has been suffering for the last period of time and he looked to me as someone who looked after him when he was 19… He’s a boy that, if he can get it together and find a peace, then he is an awesome talent.”
At 6ft 3, Caulker is a brilliant talent at disposal, but QPR really couldn’t use him efficiently. The London-born defender, who was touted to achieve a lot many things, could not get it together since the last two seasons. He was one of the top performers for Cardiff City and QPR in 2013 and 2014 before the crisis struck. He has since played only 23 games in the last three seasons.
QPR wanted to loan him to Lokomotiv Moscow last winter in January and the deal failing at the last minute had indicated his fall from the grace at the club. An academy product of Tottenham Hotspur, Caulker has played on loan in many clubs like Yeovil Town, Bristol City and Swansea City before Swansea made him permanent. He has since then played for Cardiff, QPR, Southampton and Liverpool but to no avail.
