Fletcher For Celtic - Maybes Aye, But Most-Likely Naw

BACK during the Murray Era, when Rangers were at maximum spend, spend. spend capacity, I thought of, one close season, counting-up the number of players who were, according to Record and Sun exclusives, about to join the club. However, I gave up after a couple of weeks, it had already become too-silly.

I was never a member of The A Team, as that smug, self-satisfied coterie of the "name" football writers liked to think of themselves. These guys completed a short round of Celtic Park one week, Ibrox the next, with the odd detour via Hampden to hear the words of wisdom of whoever was occupying the SFA manager's hot seat at the time. Therefore, I never had agents telephoning me with the "exclusive" news that their client was definitely maybe going to be Rangers' next big signing.

However, any hurt at the loss of a back page splash, with "EXCLUSIVE" emblazoned above in big, black type was quickly assuaged when, as happened in some 99% of these stories, it was in time found to be a load of baloney.

Down at F Troop, as we watched a bunch of First Division journeymen kicking lumps out of each other, we had a great time - one of the current members of the 2014 A Team admits, he has never recovered from, as a naive young newcomer to the media ranks, listening to a heated debate on the relative merits of the Count Basie and Duke Ellington bands, which enlivened an otherwise dire second-half at Palmerston, one cauld January.

But, I digress. These days are all but past; however, just occasionally today, we get a will-he, won't-he potential transfer story which is worth considering. This happened this morning, with the story of supposed Celtic interest in Steven Fletcher.

Now Fletch 9 is a form of footballer of which we have had one or two in Scotland of late. Yes, he scored a goal or two for Hibs and earned a big-money move south. Sure, he is credited with being a success at his three English clubs - Burnley, Wolves and Sunderland, but, I put that down to modern-day media hype. How highly you rate him as an English Premiership player deends on what you're looking for.

For me, Fletcher, like those other two graduates from Hibernian's so-called Golden Team; Derek Riordan and Garry O'Connor, is a case of a player who, in the Times's Simon Barnes's great phrase: "hasn't trained-on". His potential has not been fully realised.

Fletcher is in his 27th year; he ought to be, by all reasonable expectations, at his peak. He is a seasoned player, having played 342 senior games, in which he has scored 102 goals - an average of just under 0.3 goals per game.

If we take an average of better than 0.5 gpg as being the base rate for a top-class striker, he hasn't cut the mustard. Aside from his petty and petulant squabble with Craig Levein, which saw him left out of the Scotland squad, he has scored just one international goal in 12 appearances in the full Scotland team - which is hardly the stuff of top-class international strikers.

So, he has under-performed for Scotland. He has no Champions League experience, far less a useful pedigree in that competition. But, he is playing in the English Premiership, so, any team seeking to purchase him will require to pay the ridiculous premium which seems to attach itself to any player who has started in the self-styled "Best League In The World".

His last move, in 2012, saw Sunderland pay Wolves £12 million for his signature; he might be available at a cut-price rate, I have seen £6 million mentioned. The question is - can you see Celtic paying that much for him?

A big transfer deal of upwards of £6 million is generally made because the player being sought will make a difference - he could be the difference between winning a league and finishing second. This doesn't compute in this instance - with or without Fletcher, Celtic WILL win the SPFL; similarly, they will probably also win the Scottish Cup - so, there is no need to pay-out that much, he will not make a difference.

But, he COULD make a difference in the Champions League - or, could he? As I said above, he has no proven track record in that competition, while he doesn't even have a proven record of scoring for Scotland at full international level - his solitary Scotland goal coming against Iceland.

Then there is the question of his wages. Celtic will not pay anything like what he is probably on at the Stadium of Light. Will Neil Lennon risk breaking the club's carefully-installed wage ceiling for a player who doesn't bring much more than the hope of goals? Might not he be as well sticking with Georgios Samaras, a player who, for all the debate he causes among the Celtic Family, has been a good, solid man about the squad.

Sammy has never been considered an out-and-out main striker with Celtic, yet, for all his service in wide areas or in a more-withdrawn role, he has scored for Celtic at a rate of 0.283 gpg, 0.014 gpg worse than Fletcher's career record.

As I've said, Fletcher for Celtic is a good transfer window story, but, for me, it doesn't add up.