Robinson sure Motherwell will turn up even if Turnbull doesn’t
WITH Motherwell playing their first European game in six long years tonight, this has perhaps not been the ideal week for Celtic to rekindle their interest in signing David Turnbull.
But Stephen Robinson is confident the impending departure of the Scotland Under- 21 midfielder – who was conspicuous by his absence at training at Dalziel Park yesterday – won’t adversely affect his charges when they take on his countrymen Glentoran this evening.
Not only that, Robinson is certain the loss of Turnbull won’t prevent the Fir Park club, who qualified for the Europa League despite the gifted 21- year- old being sidelined for the vast majority of the 2019/ 20 season, enjoying further success in future.
The Northern Irishman was – with negotiations over a fee for the player continuing behind the scenes – unable to talk in any great detail about the situation.
He was, though, prepared to speculate about what life will be like if his star man moves on. Having lost a fair few key personnel during his tenure, he is relaxed about the prospect.
“We finished third with the midfield that we had last season,” said Robinson. “We sell players. We develop them. We have done that for the last three and a half years and we have done it very successfully.
There is a conveyor belt of players who play for us and leave. So it is no different than anything else.”
If the sale of Turnbull gets pushed through in the next few days, he could find himself making his Celtic debut against Motherwell at Parkhead in the Premiership game on Sunday.
An already difficult match for Declan Gallacher and his team mates, who are still searching for their first league win of the new campaign after five outings, would be made that bit harder.
But Robinson insisted he was disappointed the Scottish champions had failed in their bid to get supporters in to Celtic Park – the Scottish government turned down their request to use the fixture as a test event yesterday – as he believes empty stadiums are having a negative impact on
his men. “We have missed the fans,” he said. “We have really badly missed them.
“You get stick, but sometimes it actually drives you. We really miss the atmosphere, the Well boys in the corner singing and getting behind the team, geeing people up.
“It’s difficult for everybody. We’re no different from anybody else.
“But I think the connection between the players and fans here, the whole club down, has been really sorely missed. So the sooner we can get some of them back in the better.
“It is disappointing [ there will be no fans inside Parkhead]. We have to go with what the Scottish government say and the risks involved. But we are desperate to get our fans back into the football club to get some sort of atmosphere and get the Motherwell Boyz back in the corner singing with their flags and generate that intensity.
“I’m sure every club feels exactly the same. As soon as the government give the okay
we will be celebrating that and the return of normality.
“I don’t know the ins and outs.
“I’m sure there’s reasons for everything. We are just desperate to get fans back in as soon as we can.
“I think fans in general help, football without fans just isn’t the same. Believe me, I suffer plenty of abuse and hammering from them, but it makes football doesn’t it? Without them football just becomes a completely different sport. We just want fans back as quickly as we can.”