According to a recent report by the Daily Record, Scottish Premiership giants Celtic are said to be keeping tabs on the progress of Legia Warsaw’s promising 19-year-old full-back Michal Karbownik. The report suggests that the Hoops have had scouts watching the youngster on two separate occasions in the Polish first-division this season and that they face competition from a couple of other suitors within the continent of Europe.
It has been suggested in the report that the Celts will have to fight off competition from the likes of La Liga side Real Betis and Russian outfit Dynamo Moscow for the youngster’s signature in the summer. Neil Lennon is said to value the full-back position in his squad quite highly, owing largely to the fact that Jeremie Frimpong’s rise into the first-team was one of the main reasons behind the Glasgow club’s excellent form prior to the suspension of the season.
What Would Michal Karbownik Add To This Celtic Side?
The speedster is a 19-year-old left-back who currently plies his trade in the Polish top-flight, and is undoubtedly one of the more exciting talents to have come out of the country in recent years.
Karbownik is a highly attack-minded full-back who doesn’t mind overlapping the midfielder in front of him to provide further options in the final third of the pitch. The youngster, despite being quite diminutive in stature, displays good defensive qualities when required as well.
Karbownik likes to position himself around the halfway line to get a head start while going forward, and his ability to make runs into space is quite impressive too. The youngster is also capable of delivering quality crosses from the wide areas, meaning that scope for development is still quite high with the full-back. Discipline has been a slight issue for the youngster though, who’s picked up ten yellow cards in his 60 odd fixtures for the Polish side.
What Is Celtic’s Current Left-Back Situation?
Last summer, the Hoops made one of their biggest sales ever to the Premier League when promising young left-back Kieran Tierney was sold to Arsenal for a fee in the region of £25m. The Celts have Boli Bolingoli and Greg Taylor as the options in the left side of the defence currently. At 24 and 22 years old respectively, the aforementioned left-back duo look set to stay at Celtic for a while to come.
Is This A Signing That Lennon Needs To Make In The Summer?
Both Taylor and Bolingoli have displayed their capabilities over the course of the campaign, and the addition of another left-back into the mix would only make the manager’s task that much harder every week. The Hoops will do well to continue scouting the Polish full-back, but when it comes to actually going out and signing him, it’s a move that the Glasgow club don’t necessarily need to make at this point.
Even if they do end up signing the youngster, it’s unlikely that he breaks into the first-team immediately, which then potentially opens up the door to a further sale in the years to come.
