RONNY Deila has distanced Celtic from rumours that the club could make a high profile loan signing like Aiden McGeady - unless the player himself is prepared to make significant sacrifices in order to force the deal through. The 29-year-old Republic of Ireland international could be available on a short-term deal from Everton this January as he seeks game time ahead of the Euro 2016 finals with Republic of Ireland but Deila feels the club are not in a position to pay the salary that McGeady could command and only wants loan signings who can be of lasting value to the club.
While John Guidetti and Jason Denayer made an impact on-loan from Manchester City last season, neither chose to make their deals permanent and having to replace them at short notice hardly helped the club's attempts to qualify for the Champions League this summer. The club have previously made crowd-pleasing deadline day signings like Robbie Keane, with majority shareholder Dermot Desmond reportedly paying a chunk of the deal from his own personal fortune. While players of the calibre of McGeady are under consideration at the club, the consensus seems to be that there are too many obstacles standing in the way of a deal.
"We have tried before to get those types of players but they get three times the salary at other places," said Deila. "It’s also more interesting for them to play in England than Scotland. It’s tough and you never say never but it’s a different planet when you talk salaries.
“It has to be players who want to come to Glasgow and play for Celtic – like Carlton Cole," said Deila. "He went down a lot in salary. We would not be able to pay the salary that the likes of McGeady are on. The difference is so unbelievably big that’s there is no chance. The wage structure would be broken 10 times if we did that!
“When you get someone and then they leave in the summer it becomes a tough situation afterwards. Sometimes you can do it. If you feel you can build a relationship with the player during the time he’s on loan then maybe you can keep him longer. Maybe with players like McGeady, who has been here before, when he reaches the end of his career he’ll want to come back again. That’s possible, of course. But I haven’t talked with him about that, although these types of names we are talking about. I don’t know what Dermot did before. You’d need to talk with him about that. But we’d need to have the opportunity to buy him. That’s an important thing for us.”
There are no sure things when it comes to transfers, as the cases of Guidetti and Denayer prove. The Swedish striker has started just one match at Celta Vigo and the Belgian centre half has had an injury-hit time at Galatasaray, on-loan from Manchester City. "Celta Vigo is a good team - they are fourth in Spain so if you are on the bench there then it does not make you a bad player," said Deila.
The Parkhead side's first match of the year comes in the Glasgow derby against Partick Thistle today but Deila doesn't foresee the club undergoing much in the way of transfer business early in the window, other than welcoming Ryan Christie to the club, having been on-loan from Inverness ever since his signing in the summer. The club have been linked with Croatian midfielder Ivan Mocinic but any movement on that deal seems unlikely until late in the month. “I hope to do it [early business] but I don’t expect it," said Deila. "Clubs are always waiting and players too. It’s about money and options."
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