According to the latest reports from the Daily Record, Celtic’s head of recruitment Lee Congerton could follow Brendan Rodgers’ path and join Leicester City as their transfer chief. The report adds that Congerton was considered for the role of Celtic’s sporting director, but he wants to explore other things abroad.
We wouldn’t be wrong in saying that Celtic fans’ view on Congerton’s recruitment in the past two years would be divided. In his presence, Celtic signed some heavyweight players like Odsonne Edouard, Olivier Ntcham, Filip Benkovic and Timothy Weah (The latter two on loan). However, there have been certain dud transfers as well like Marvin Compper, Charly Musonda and Youssouf Mulumbu.
At one time, it felt like anyone doing well against Celtic would be linked or signed by the club as the Hoops brought in the likes of Jonny Hayes, Lewis Morgan, Scott Bain and Jack Hendry. They were also linked with John McGinn and Scott McKenna, but the Bhoys could not manage to pull off those signings.
Working for Celtic, Congerton would be aware of certain gems around the globe as we all know Celtic don’t have the financial power to match heavyweight clubs throughout the world. Therefore they often look for shrewd and smart signings, and that should help Leicester if Congerton goes on to join them.
Moreover, working with someone with whom he has worked before should come in handy as Congerton would be aware of the kind of players Brendan Rodgers likes. Plus with more financial power at Leicester, Congerton can get his hands on a larger pool of players.
With a limited budget, Celtic competed in some of the top European competitions and Leicester are also pretty much in the same boat as they try to break the shackles of being a mid-table club and challenge for the top six spots. English clubs often target local players and from Europe’s top leagues but there is no doubt that there are gems hidden around various leagues. Congerton’s knowledge should come in handy at the King Power Stadium.
However, Congerton isn’t exactly considered a messiah at Celtic as the Hoops have been criticised for signing too many players on loan. Moreover, the contract situation of Boyata was also allowed to run out under Congerton, and something like that is never ideal as Celtic missed out on making good money on a top defender. However, we believe these mishaps happened because of the lack of funds, and at Leicester, the recruitment chief should have more funds to manoeuvre with hopefully.
