GORDON BLUE
Chelsea up ante with Craig bid No.2 A DAY before window shuts
CHELSEA have ve today returned to Celtic with a second bid for Craig Gordon todayy – just hours before the transferransfer window slams shut.
The club managed by Antonio Conte, right, are believed to have tabled a £3.5m offer for the Scottland internationalist, a £1m increase from their bid last week. Gordon kep kept a clean sheet as Celtic beat Hearts 4-0 yest yesterday to create a new record of 27 games unbeatenu at the start of a season, overtak overtaking the previous best of 26 set by the Lisbo Lisbon Lions. Brend Brendan Rodgers maintains Gord Gordon is not a player that Celtic wa want to sell, although it is th thought that privately the keeper will seek permission from the club to enter into
dialogue with Chelsea if and when a second bid is received.
The Scotland internationalist was the subject of an opening bid believed to be less than £3m, an offer that is significantly below the valuation that the club hold for the 34-year-old.
Their resolve is likely to be tested over the next 24 hours, though, with an improved offer expected.
“There is nothing new,” said Rodgers. “He is a player we want to keep.”
However, there also seemed to be recognition that if the club’s valuation for the player is met then there may well be something to think about.
“Chelsea have an interest in him but for any interest to be activated the valuation of the player has to be met,” said Rodgers.
“We don’t want to sell him, of course, but if there’s any way then there has to be an offer that would allow us to do that as a club. And what came in was nowhere near that level.
“He is a goalkeeper I really want to keep here.”
Rodgers, though, maintains that Gordon will be squandering game time and also believes the keeper has improved under the tutelage of the current coaching staff.
“He is a player that, with all due respect, when myself and my staff came in here he was a far cry from what he is now,” said Rodgers.
“Whenever I studied the games here in the past, when the ball went back to Craig the crowd were nervous and the players were nervous and he was probably nervous.
“If you look at him now, our style has elevated him to one of the best clubs in Europe wanting to take him down there as a No.2.
“I understand the lure of it and I understand what it would mean for Craig to go there and waste away his career in not playing games.”