Celtic have taken Manny Perez on trial and it’s bad news for Anthony Ralston if he signs.
It looks like Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers might have his eye on an early winter deal.
Highly-rated USA Under-20 international Manny Perez has started his trial at Lennoxtown, as confirmed by the player himself on Monday morning.
Perez is a right-back and lord knows that the Celtic manager probably needs one of those in January, though one Hoops player won’t be happy if he is signed.
Mikael Lustig and Cristian Gamboa are both out of contract at Parkhead next summer, meaning that academy graduate Anthony Ralston could have been forgiven for thinking that he was set to inherit that position.
Lustig will likely earn a new deal, but he turns 32 this week and for a while Ralston has seemed like an obvious long-term replacement for the Sweden.
But signing up Perez would be a clear and yet indirect message from Rodgers to Ralston that he isn’t ready – and it’s probably true.
The 20-year-old, who is yet to make an appearance for the Bhoys this season, hasn’t developed as expected since breaking into the first team at the beginning of the 2017-18 campaign, though a four-month layoff hardly helped him last term.
Be that as it may, the young defender has been consistently fit since February and the fact that he is still nowhere near Lustig or even Gamboa must be a worry.
He will be desperate to succeed at Paradise in the long term, but a permanent deal for Perez would represent yet another obstacle and that will massively disappoint Ralston if it materialises.
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