Soccer:Aiden McGeady has undergone a medical with Spartak Moscow and Celtic expect his €11.5 million transfer to be completed before the weekend. The Republic of Ireland international has already agreed a deal with the Russian club.
While frustrated to see the winger leave Parkhead, Celtic manager Neil Lennon admitted he was reluctant to stand in McGeady’s way once the player made his intentions clear.
“It’s what he wanted to do and sometimes you can’t stand in the way of that,” Lennon said. “It’s a huge offer for one player and I think it’s the right offer. It’s probably good business for Spartak and good business for us.
“I’m sorry to lose him, he is one of the entertainers in the game. We’ll probably miss out on his peak years but he came to us and said that he felt at the end of the season it would be better for him to move on. It’s difficult to stand in the way of someone who doesn’t want to be here.”
McGeady’s transfer could pave the way for the arrival of Craig Bellamy and the Glasgow club have opened talks with Manchester City and Bellamy’s representatives as the Wales striker looks set to be frozen out by Roberto Mancini.
Bellamy was yesterday left out of City’s Europa League squad for the play-off against Timisoara despite there being two unused spaces. The snub has fuelled speculation that Mancini will omit the 31-year-old from his 25-man Premier League pool and seek to offload him from the wage bill.
It has also come as a huge surprise to Lennon, who played alongside the City forward when he joined Celtic on loan in 2005.
Lennon said: “I thought he was their best player last year and I would say, outside Chelsea and Manchester United, he was probably the best player in the Premier League.
“When you see someone of the calibre of Craig and the fact that he’s not in the 25 and he’s looking to go out and play football, then it would be remiss of me not to look into it.
“We’ve been speaking to his representatives and we’ve been speaking to Man City.
“How far down the line we are will be down to Craig obviously. But the advantage we have is that, one, it’s not in the Premier League and, two, he has been here before and he enjoyed his time here and made a huge impact on the game up here and has a real connection with the supporters.”