After Ofir Marciano announced his departure from Hibernian in the build up to last summer’s transfer window, former Easter Road hero Tam MacManus suggested that Celtic could do a lot worse than bring in a goalkeeper with over 100 Scottish Premiership appearances under his belt.
“I’d be very surprised if Celtic didn’t try and get Marciano on a free,” MacManus tweeted in May 2021.
“(I) can count on one hand the mistakes he has made at Hibs in four – five years. He is a better goalkeeper than any currently at Celtic in my opinion.”
MacManus certainly had a point.
Vasilis Barkas, a £4.5 million signing from AEK Athens that previous summer, had not come close to living up to his eye-watering price-tag at Parkhead. Neither Scott Bain nor Conor Hazard had really convinced between the sticks either. So a new number one felt like a must if Celtic were to wrestle the title back from Rangers’ clutches.
Will Ofir Marciano be wishing he’d joined Celtic?
Once it became apparent that Joe Hart was 1) available and 2) keen, however, any interest that Celtic may have harboured in Marciano quickly fell by the wayside (Edinburgh Live).
Not that the 32-year-old Israel international had to wait all that long for another opportunity to present itself.
Feyenoord soon came calling. Another historic European giant who had fallen on hard times during a difficult 2020/21 campaign.
“This is such a big club,” Marciano said after signing a two-year deal with the 2017 Eredivisie champions.
“I’m looking forward to proving myself here.”
Unfortunately for Marciano, he hasn’t had many chances to do just that since swapping Edinburgh for the Eredivisie. He made just his fourth league appearance of a possible 26 during Feyenoord’s 2-1 victory over PEC Zwolle on Sunday.
Marciano only featured against PEC because Justin Bijlow, the club’s number one, was unavailable due to injury. His other three Eredivisie outings coincided with Bijlow’s spell out of the side with COVID too.
Joe Hart, in contrast, is already closing in on 50 appearances between the sticks at Celtic. As for Marciano, well, one suspects he’d just be glad to reach double figures in Feyenoord colours.
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