If it comes to a straight shoot-out between Celtic and the Ibrox side for Fares Ghedjemis, that is one battle the board cannot afford to lose!

Apparently, we’re inching – since that’s all Celtic ever does, inch – towards the signing of Fares Ghedjemis from Frosinone.

The player we almost had in the door last January.

Except we couldn’t come to an agreement on his transfer fee.

Imagine that?

The Celtic board being unable to come to an agreement on a transfer fee?

We, of course, never see jiggery pokery of that sort going on at Celtic.

We’re world class in everything we do, especially transfers!

Well, I’m being slightly generous there, probably better to say that we’re world class at trolling other football clubs when it comes to placing offers for their players.

Celtic is definitely world class at trolling….players, player’s agents, other clubs, club CEO’s, club sporting directors, and last but not least, Celtic is world class at trolling its own fans.

But now the SMSM is reporting that Celtic is going head to head with the Ibrox side in a bid to secure the signing of Fares Ghedjemis.

Now, I have to admit, it’s been quite a while since we’ve really had one of these head to head battles between us and the Ibrox side for a player.

The last one that really stands out to me is the tug of war between us the deid club for Scott Brown.

A battle which we won hands down.

Rangers 1872 weren’t willing to break the then Scottish record for a player, Celtic were.

And the rest is history, as they say.

The £4.5 million transfer fee still stands as a record in the Scottish game.

It seems like a pittance in comparison to the gigantic fees we see in the game these days.

Celtic were willing to push the boat out for Brown back then, and it turned out to be a very wise investment in the long run.

The club got 14 great years out of Scott Brown, and legendary club captain to boot.

I digress.

Back to Fares Ghedjemis and our supposed head to head with the Ibrox side for his signature.

As is always the case with these stories, I take them with a grain of salt.

Up until recently, the idea of them going head to head with us to sign a player was laughable.

The Ibrox side just didn’t have the finances or spending power Celtic has, but that may have changed somewhat with the arrival of the Americans.

So should we be taking this ‘two way tug of war’ with them seriously?

The Sun reported yesterday on the ongoing ‘saga’ between us and the Ibrox side:

We told you yesterday that R*****s had developed interest in the winger, who had been heavily linked with Celtic in January.

And just hours later, we revealed that the Hoops were going to rejoin the race for his signing against their rivals.

And the saga appears to be developing in real time.

That’s as Ghedjemis is absent from his Italian club Frosinone’s squad for their pre-season friendly against Benevento.

Well, I guess if we didn’t have bungling Michael Nicholson in charge of transfer dealings, then this one should really be a slam dunk.

Regardless of the Americans, we could outbid them easily on this one.

But as we well know, Celtic and Michael Nicholson don’t fare well when it comes to ‘intense negotiations’.

Not to mind when other clubs enter the race, especially one like our closest rivals.

We also cannot forget those pesky agents, can we?

Silent Mike suffers badly from Agentophobia.

So can you imagine having to deal with an agent, as well as going head to head with your nearest rival on this one?!

In reality though, this should be a non-contest.

It’s Silent Mike that makes it into a competition it doesn’t need to be.

I’ll put it this way, though, if the Ibrox interest is real, then them sneaking in and taking the player from under our noses would not be a good look for a board already struggling for credibility.

Any credibility they banked after the signing of Kasper Høgh has already been pissed away.

Especially when the manager has been wheeled out in front of the media and he acts like he’s unaware of the fact we’ve had 14 players leave the club this summer.

With more to follow.

The mission to sell Arne Engels and Alistair Johnston for big money as fast as possible seems to be far more important to them than signing any more players.

This kind of farting around, waiting to land big money before spending could very well allow the Ibrox club to steal a march on us when it comes to Fares Ghedjemis.

That would really be the icing in the cake when it comes to a summer window where Kasper Høgh has the been the exception, rather than the rule.

Do we need to take this Ibrox interest in our target seriously?

Well, I guess only Silent Mike can answer that question.

And we don’t call him Silent Mike for the shits and giggles.

We can only assume it’ll be the agent’s fault if the Ibrox side sign him.

That outcome really would not be a good look for Silent Mike and Co, though.

Developing story….

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