Scottish Daily Mail

The £10m question

Have Celtic shot themselves in foot as Stokes goes out on loan to Hibs?

- By JOHN McGARRY

WITH due allowance for approximat­ion, it’s a question that comes with a £10million price tag. For Celtic, the cost of life in the top flight without Rangers is said to be an eight-figure annual shortfall.

No sum of money will ever persuade many of a green and white persuasion that they actually miss their old rivals.

But, rest assured, those tasked with balancing the Parkhead books will be privately thankful when normal service is resumed. All of which makes Celtic’s willingnes­s to lend an accomplish­ed striker in Anthony Stokes to Hibernian — one of Rangers’ main rivals for the Championsh­ip title — intriguing, to say the least.

‘Pass!’ said Hibs boss Alan Stubbs when that particular curveball was thrown his way yesterday. ‘If we do get this across the line, then Anthony, for whatever reason, it hasn’t worked out for him the way everyone would have liked it to. This is an opportunit­y for him to go out and play. Is that ducking the question?’

The curveball having been thrown back, Stubbs added: ‘Obviously, Celtic are the parent club and they are to a certain degree in control of things but Anthony has a say in it as well. In an ideal world this season, I hope that we go up and there’s a good chance Rangers will go up, too. That outcome, or equation, is not a question then.’

Much as Stokes’ loan to Hibs for the rest of the season has the propensity to bite Celtic on the backside financiall­y, there is much to it that makes perfect sense from a footballin­g perspectiv­e.

While, in normal circumstan­ces, the chance of playing in a higher league would appeal, Inverness look unlikely to rise above mid-table while Dundee United presently need a miracle to even get that far.

Not all of the Championsh­ip backdrops are likely to have Stokes licking his lips in anticipati­on but a bona fide three-way title race, a League Cup semi-final with St Johnstone and a trip to Tynecastle in the Scottish Cup most certainly will.

‘We do have a couple of decent games for him to look forward to if we get it across the line,’ added Stubbs. ‘It’s more about what Anthony can offer us. He brings goals and knows what he’s coming into. I’m sure he’s spoken to a few of the lads about it here.

‘We’ll give him a stage to perform on and what he does on that stage is entirely up to Anthony.

‘We’re hopefully bringing Anthony in for football reasons, and we feel he will give us a greater opportunit­y to achieve what we want to do here.

‘Speaking to the lads who know him, he just wants to move on and play regularly. We’ll give him that opportunit­y. He’s not just going to walk into the team, he’s going to have to earn his place. But he’ll be allowed to express himself in the team. He’ll get that from me, if we manage to do it.’

Just three points behind Rangers and only separated by an inferior goal difference from tomorrow’s hosts Falkirk, Hibs fans will view the capture of Stokes as a trump card in this engaging title fight.

Scorer of 24 goals in 2009-10 — his previous sole season at Easter Road — Stubbs acknowledg­es his short-term acquisitio­n could be hugely significan­t.

‘There’s a long way to go. But he definitely increases our odds of trying to do it. Do we have a better chance with Anthony Stokes? The answer is pretty obvious.’

Stokes could go straight into the side that faces another of his former clubs tomorrow. For Stubbs, the fact Peter Houston’s men have lasted the pace has come as no surprise.

‘I said weeks and months ago they would be in there,’ he said. ‘All the talk has been about ourselves and Rangers. But they have been picking up results week in week out. They were never going to go away. And this will be a difficult game. But it will be a difficult game for them as well.’

Hibs defender Liam Fontaine says it’s impossible to understate the importance of matches between the top three. His team’s loss at Dumbarton in August remains the only defeat any of the three contenders have suffered outwith their head-to-heads.

Consequent­ly, whichever side claims the lion’s share of the points from the top-of-the-table tussles is likely to have one hand on the Championsh­ip trophy come May.

‘When we come up against Rangers and Falkirk, we will need to come out on top to go above them,’ said Fontaine. ‘You can’t expect them to lose against the other teams in the league — you need to win those games.

‘We’ll go there confident, we’ve had good results in the past, it’s a good surface — one of the better 4G pitches.’

Without his beard for the first time in five months after shaving it off to raise over £2,000 for the Sick Kids Friends Foundation, the Englishman can only hope he doesn’t experience a Samson-like loss of powers tomorrow.

‘We have some big games coming up in the next few weeks,’ he said, ‘and we’re all raring to go.’

 ??  ?? Opportunit­y knocks: Stokes is heading to Hibs to help spearhead their title challenge There may be stubble ahead: Fontaine is sporting a new look (right) for the trip to Falkirk tomorrow after trimming his beard to raise over £2,000 for the Sick Kids...
Opportunit­y knocks: Stokes is heading to Hibs to help spearhead their title challenge There may be stubble ahead: Fontaine is sporting a new look (right) for the trip to Falkirk tomorrow after trimming his beard to raise over £2,000 for the Sick Kids...
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