With a £2 million price tag, Will Ferry really is a no brainer for Celtic, so why aren’t we getting this deal done?

Deadline day is almost here, and the clock is ticking down to 11.00 pm tonight for the naming of Celtic’s Europa League squad.

Which means we have a matter of hours left to do something sensible.

I’m not holding my breath.

Because there is a player sitting up the road at Tannadice who would improve this Celtic squad tomorrow morning, and we still haven’t moved for him.

Will Ferry.

The Dundee United left-back has been one of the best players in this league.

He is a Republic of Ireland international.

He knows the Scottish Premiership inside out.

And the asking price is somewhere around £2 million.

Two million pounds.

For a club that has banked an absolute fortune on outgoings this summer, that is loose change down the back of the couch.

You could find £2 million in the Celtic accounts without even having to take your jacket off.

Two million quid for a proven Premiership left-back, and we are still sitting on our hands.

🚨 𝗖𝗘𝗟𝗧𝗜𝗖 𝗡𝗘𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗢 𝗕𝗘 𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 🚨

Anderlecht have tonight ended their interest in Dundee United’s Will Ferry. For me, Celtic really need to be all over this between now and Thursday’s deadline.

We need cover at left-back, Ferry knows Scottish… pic.twitter.com/NAiiwjQKOo

— The Parkhead Faithful (@TheParkheadF) September 1, 2026

I’m not the only one who sees it, either.

Scott Brown was on BBC Sportscene at the weekend, and he could not have been much clearer about it.

Here’s what our former captain had to say on Ferry:

Will Ferry for me was incredible today from start to finish, and they will do well to hold onto him.

I think if you’re looking at Celtic at this moment in time, he’s similar to Kieran [Tierney]. He’s powerful, he wants to drive forward, very good crosser of the ball.

I think a lot of people naturally think he just wants to go forward all the time, but he’s a very, very good defender, that’s what Kieran is as well.

It would be a very good move for Celtic if they go and snap him up, because there’s been a bid for £1.7million already, and he didn’t want to go. It’s quite a cheap option to go and hopefully get a person who knows the league.

Now, when Broony talks about this league, I tend to listen.

He played in it long enough to know exactly what he is looking at.

And the Kieran Tierney comparison is not one he would throw around lightly.

Broony is right about the Tierney comparison, and that is precisely why Ferry would work for us.

Will Ferry.

WHAT. A. GOAL.pic.twitter.com/2iPEZZLfA8

— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) August 29, 2026

Powerful, drives forward, whips a ball in.

But a proper defender too, which is the bit everybody conveniently forgets about Tierney as well.

That is Ferry to a tee.

Ask anybody who has watched us play Dundee United these past couple of seasons.

Every single time we have come up against him, he has caused us major problems.

And here is the part that should have this deal done already.

Kieran Tierney cannot play every single game between now and May.

We know that, because we have watched his body let him down before.

So what exactly happens the first time he pulls up?

Who is the left-back then?

Are you looking forward to watching us shove a midfielder in there again, the way we have been forced to do far too often over the past couple of seasons?

Ferry would be cover for Tierney, competition for Tierney, and a significant upgrade on whatever it is we currently have sitting behind him.

There is another wee bonus nobody seems to be mentioning.

He is a Republic of Ireland international.

Which means there is not a chance in this world of the Ibrox side ever going near him.

So there would be none of the usual pantomime of them bidding purely to drive the price up on us.

The road is clear.

The price is cheap.

The player knows the league.

The manager needs bodies.

So what exactly is stopping them?

I genuinely cannot see a single downside here, and believe me, I have gone looking for one.

So why are we still faffing about chasing loan deals instead of signing a player we could actually own?

Because that is what this board does.

Rather than spend £2 million on a Premiership-proven defender, they will scramble about Europe on the last day looking for somebody else’s spare part.

A body to make the numbers up until January.

How many more windows are we all expected to sit through watching this exact same routine play out?

We did exactly the same thing last season – and look how well that worked out for us.

Martin O’Neill has been handed a squad that lost 16 players over the course of the summer and got a mere handful of them back.

He needs quality, and he needs it in the positions where we are one injury away from a crisis.

Left-back is one of those positions.

Ferry is available, he is affordable, and by all accounts he had no interest in leaving for the last club that came calling.

Make of that what you will.

Maybe he is holding out for something better.

Maybe he is holding out for us.

It’s staring the board in the face, and as usual, they just can’t see it.

Or worse, they can see it perfectly well, and they simply don’t fancy paying for it.

Because £2 million spent is £2 million off the net profit they are so desperate to post.

That is the bit that grinds me right down.

It isn’t the failure to identify a player.

It’s the failure to sign one after he has been identified, priced, and handed to them on a plate by anybody with a pair of eyes.

Do we honestly believe this board are going to start behaving like a big club on the very last afternoon of the window?

A few hours left between today and tomorrow – and one obvious, affordable, ready-made signing sitting up the road waiting on a phone call.

Michael Nicholson has the phone number.

Whether he can be bothered lifting it is another matter entirely…

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