Dunne, Guzan, and the Poles

By: JT | January 21st, 2008

I suppose its only natural for every Irish international to be linked to Celtic in one way, shape, or form during their professional career.

I don’t know if its just the logical thing for an agent to do when they are trying to wring some extra cash from the Irishman’s current club or what, but this week’s player linked to Celtic is Manchester City’s central defender Richard Dunne.

I’ve come around on Dunne in the last few seasons. I used to see him as a bit overweight, mistake prone, and consistently confused on the pitch. Now he’s the rock at the center of the City defense, the club captain, and looking to win his fourth consecutive Player of the Year award, although Sven’s infusion of foreign talent makes that unlikely.

Dunne has 18 months left on his contract at City, and is currently in negotiations, which makes this rumor a bit suspect. His agent seems to be trying to leverage the Celtic-Ireland connection to get better terms for his player, and I suppose thats only fair.

Dunne is certainly a player that I’d like to see in the Hoops, but I sincerely doubt he’ll be contemplating a move north. City is well placed to make themselves fixtures in European competition, and frankly, the cash piles up much higher in England. Dunne has earned the right to a massive extension from his wealthy new owners, and he’ll probably get it.

Chivas USA keeper Brad Guzan has garnered himself the opportunity to show the staff at Celtic Park what he’s all about. Guzan’s been granted a one week trial with the club. If he performs, he’ll get a contract. Pretty simple stuff, I think.

I can’t read Guzan’s mind, but I’m not sure a move to Celtic would be in his best interests. Yes, he could learn a ton from a world class keeper like Artur Boruc, and perhaps even succeed him in a few years time when the big Pole decides to move on.

Guzan would be 27 or so then, and in prime position to move into a starring role, assuming he can beat out the other keepers that Celtic have now and may have in the future. I understand this plan of attack, because he could still have 10+ years playing top class football.

But for me, he needs to play right away. He’s only 23 and has been in spectacular form for much of his professional career. In my opinion, sitting on the bench for the next few years is not what’s best for him, no matter what he learns.

He needs to be out there, playing week in and week out, learning in competitive matches, not just on the training ground. The best place for him right now is one where he’ll be the #1 or at least have a legitimate shot at getting the job for himself. That won’t happen at Celtic.

Keeping with the MLS theme, Columbus Crew are looking to move for Polish striker Maciej Zurawski, who is seeking first team football in order to be ready for Euro 2008. The fee that is being reported is around £200,000, which is well below Celtic’s £1m valuation of the player. I don’t get the feeling that Magic is a malcontent or a dressing room cancer who needs to be removed at any cost to the club, so the fee is going to have to go up substantially before he’s sold.

I’ve talked about Poles and I’ve talked about trials, so here’s that perfect rumor which combines the two. Celtic have handed a trial to Polish left-back Seweryn Gancarczyk. Gancarczyk was so enthused about the trial and potential move that he walked out on his contract at Ukrainian club Metalist Kharkiv.

The 27 year-old Gancarczyk has been capped three times for his country and was in Poland’s squad for World Cup 2006. Let’s see what he can do before we decide he’s the ready made replacement for the consistent if not flashy Lee Naylor.

Birmingham newboy James McFadden admits that a loan move to Celtic intrigued him before he decided to leave Everton for a relegation battle. It sounds like a permanent move was never an option, so really its not that big a loss.

McFadden’s shown brief moments of brilliance in both his international and club careers, but he just hasn’t done it consistently enough for me to feel comfortable about Celtic relying on him too heavily, or ponying up too much cash to buy him.

The talk at the pub this weekend was about Newcastle United’s new boss Kevin Keegan swooping in to steal young midfield powerhouse Scott Brown away from Parkhead. I wasn’t able to find a reliable source for this unreliable statement, but TribalFootball has bailed me out on finding somewhere the rumor is actually in print. Not gonna happen. Sorry Kev.

I’ll wrap up the Kilmarnock victory later today, so until then, ‘Mon the Hoops!