Celtic are currently going through a crisis in midfield with the likes of Scott Brown, Olivier Ntcham, Eboue Kouassi all being injured. Even then someone like Scott Allan has failed to get some game time, and the former Portsmouth midfielder hasn’t played a single minute of football this season. The 26-year-old midfielder has been with the Hoops since 2015 but so far has had three loan spells at various clubs.
Former Celtic defender and current BT Sports pundit Allan Stubbs recently talked about Allan’s situation in a podcast and said,”He needs to be playing, wherever that is, whether it’s at Celtic or out somewhere else. It’s not doing him any favours being there, especially with the way that the loan window is now. It is every six months and you’ve got to be out. It’s not doing Brendan any favours. He’s too good. I’m surprised he hasn’t gone out.”
The midfielder has made just 17 appearances in his three-year spell, and it is clear that Rodgers isn’t too keen on including him in the playing elven this year. It was definitely surprising to see the club keeping hold of him in the summer as they should have sent him on loan or ideally sold him as he has been the final year of his contract.
The player will also want his nightmarish spell at Park Head to come to an end soon and he should be glad by the fact that he is in the final year of his contract. There currently seems no return for Allan in the first team and to cut losses; the Hoops should look to offload him in January so that they can get some transfer funds instead of losing him for free next summer.
Hibernian FC could be one of the interested parties as Neil Lennon recently indicated that they could go in for Allan. The former Scotland u-21 international has had two spells with the Hibs already as he was with them on loan in January this year and in 2014, he was signed by the Scottish club from Birmingham City. There were reports earlier that Rodgers would try to use Allan in a deal to land John McGinn from Hibernian. However, Mcginn went on to join English club Aston Villa.
As Stubbs has said, Allan is too good a player to be rotting on the bench and he could be a regular for most of the Scottish club in the Premiership. His passing range is exceptional and along with that the 26-year-old works hard and his versatility to do various kind of roles in midfield is also worth mentioning. It is clear that there is no point of return for the midfielder in Celtic colours and the club should look to get him off the payroll in January.
