VIRTUOSO STUART ‘DEVELOPING’ JUST FINE WITH CELTIC
‘We just thought it was an offer for a player who could progress with us. He’s more of a development player.’
THE words of Burnley manager Sean Dyche explaining why he was dropping his interest in Stuart Armstrong after a £1.5million offer was rejected by Dundee United in January 2015.
Dyche’s quote always did come across as disparaging, and was quickly rebuked as Armstrong cut a swathe through Inter Milan’s defence in a European knock-out tie for his new club Celtic. Weeks later Burnley’s development side was beaten 9-1 (yes, nine) by a Falkirk team preparing for the Scottish Cup final.
Little more than two years on, it is safe to say Armstrong has offered conclusive proof that he is so much more than a project player. Having met United’s asking price of £2m two-and-a-half years ago, Celtic are now struggling to meet the wage demands of a player who has emerged as one of the UK’s most coveted midfielders.
A posse of English Premier League clubs are monitoring the Scotland man’s contract situation. He has a year to run and, if Celtic cannot agree terms, Southampton and Brighton are especially keen to pursue an interest — although there is no indication of whether Dyche would be prepared to eat humble pie and introduce Burnley to a bidding process which could reasonably be expected to start around £8m. Brendan Rodgers wants Armstrong to stay and was at pains to stress his omission from the starting line-up against Linfield in midweek had nothing to do with any impasse. Proof of his enduring worth came as he climbed from the bench to score his 24th goal for the club.
Simon Donnelly, a former Celtic player who was assistant manager as Armstrong blossomed at Tannadice, has no doubt the 25-year-old possesses the tools to succeed in the English top flight but questions whether a switch to a club operating in the lower half of football’s richest division would suit someone whose game is geared to attack.
‘I think Stuart would be wise to stay at Celtic,’ said Donnelly (right). ‘Stuart could make a move to England and find himself stuck in a fight at the bottom of the table. Is that his game? I’m not sure.
‘Right now, everything at Celtic is going for him, he is playing in a position that suits him, the
team has a lot of possession and he is scoring goals and winning trophies.
‘I don’t doubt that he has the quality to do well in England but he needs to make the right decision for his football.’
Donnelly has been in this movie himself.
Back in 1999, he drew the ire of Fergus McCann by rejecting Celtic’s terms and opting to join Sheffield Wednesday.
Money, it is fair to say, was one of the motivating factors and Donnelly does not dispute Armstrong’s right to cut the best deal for his future.
However, he reckons his present circumstances, and indeed his prospects, would be best served with another couple of years in Glasgow.
‘It’s a tricky one in the sense that a football career is short and there could be deals on the table that would make Stuart a very wealthy man,’ continued Donnelly. ‘But it has to be the right club.
‘This is a great time to be a Celtic player, part of a team known as the Invincibles. The club is on the crest of a wave and everyone is waiting to see what the next step is.
‘He’s not going to get that anywhere else.’ Jackie McNamara’s right-hand man, Donnelly spent two years working with Armstrong at United and remains in touch. Text messages will occasionally be dispatched to praise a performance or note a new milestone but he sees no need to intervene with career advice. ‘The people around Stuart will be offering good advice and, as everyone knows, he is a clever lad,’ added Donnelly. ‘I’ve known his dad down the years and he comes from a good family.
‘You don’t need to be nasty to have a competitive edge. It’s as much about being able to handle playing for a club the size of Celtic and he’s proved he can do that.
‘When you work with somebody for two or three years you develop a bond and it’s great to watch them progress. I’ll drop him the odd text to say he’s played well, the same when he made his Scotland debut. That was a big thing.
‘He really hit the ground running at Celtic with that Inter Milan game, but there was a period where he seemed to get bogged down.
‘That wasn’t his fault, the whole club suffered in the same way, but there has been a freshness to his game under Rodgers. For me, the turning point was the League Cup semi-final when he and Leigh Griffiths came on and turned the game.
‘After that, his confidence in himself grew, as did the belief from the manager.’
In marked contrast to Dyche, former Celtic owner McCann, specialised in acerbic comments that rarely missed the mark. Asked about the prospect of losing Donnelly and Phil O’Donnell, who also moved to Sheffield on a pre-contract, the businessman famously invoked Burt Bacharach’s:
‘Do You Know the Way to San Jose?’
McCann’s ‘And all the stars that never were, are parking cars and pumping gas’ retort was a withering putdown, one which now draws a chuckle from Donnelly. ‘At 42 I can look back and admit that in terms of the standard of football, things were never the same for me after I left Celtic — and that was after a move to the English Premier League,’ he conceded. ‘I don’t regret it.’