Sevco fans have been overjoyed at the news that Nathan Paterson is on the verge of sealing a switch to Everton, with the reported fee around £10m give or take. I’m not interesting in getting into the add ons or sell on clauses or whatever. I know reports have gone from £9.2m all the way up to £16m if all targets are met, but that isn’t the point of this article.
Let’s put it into perspective. When Kieran Tierney left three years ago to join Arsenal for a club record fee of £25m (every single penny of that up front) Celtic supporters weren’t creaming themselves that we were getting some good money coming in for him, most of us were angry. Angry at the thought of losing one of our best players, our home-grown talent, our future captain, a player who is Celtic through and through.
Celtic fans were desperate for KT to stay. To help bring more success to the club. Yet across the City, the same type of player, home-grown, supported the club his whole life, future star player, yet the first whiff they get of a fee scraping 8 figures, they punt him, and their supporters couldn’t be any happier.
Do you know why? They now think they have finally reached our level. They have seen countless of our players go for massive transfer fees in comparison to what they have sold players for. Their club has been trying to offload players for big money for a number of years now with absolutely no success whatsoever. And now, to be finally on the verge of doing something that we have done many, many times over years, they are celebrating.
That folks, is a small club mentality.
