You didn’t need a PHD in divination, when reports emerged suggesting that Celtic would look to sign Estoril’s Tiago Araujo in a potential £4 million January deal, to predict that this would likely spell the beginning of the end as far as Alexandro Bernabei’s Parkhead career is concerned.
The Argentine had already failed to displace Greg Taylor in the left-back spot under both Ange Postecoglou and Brendan Rodgers.
And, with The Telegraph reporting that Celtic had made an enquiry for the £4 million-rated Araujo, it was hard to imagine that the potential arrival of Estoril’s highly-rated Portuguese flyer would not lead to Alexandro Bernabei packing his bags.
Celtic eye Tiago Araujo deal
And sure enough, the £3.75 million signing from Lanus back in 2022, is one of five players who have reportedly been told they are free to pursue a fresh start in the winter.
According to Football Scotland, Celtic have thrown open the doors to Yosuke Ideguchi, Yuki Kobayashi, Benjamin Siegrst and James McCarthy, as well as their seldom-seen southpaw. Bernabei has played only 43 minutes of football this season, and was even left out of their Champions League squad by Rodgers.
“Alexandro Bernabei has been a disappointing signing thus far,” former Hoops hero Kris Commons told the Daily Mail in March.
“Celtic paid £3.75 million to sign him from Argentina last summer. But it’s Taylor who has ended up having an outstanding season.
“(Taylor) has rightly kept Bernabei out of the team.”
Bernabei, for all his tenacity and his swashbuckling speed, has consistently ran into the same old problems as a Celtic player. In a team used to dominating possession domestically and often requiring a surgeon’s scalpel to open up a massed ranks of opposition defenders, Bernabei’s club and thump approach has often proved ineffective.
To put it simply, he lacks Taylor’s technical qualities and tactical versatility.
Alexandro Bernabei has struggled in Scotland
Whether Araujo possesses the attributes Bernabei lacks, only time will tell.
With two goals and three assists from left-back this season, the former Portugal Under 21 international certainly seems to share Taylor’s final-third composure and his ability to make the right decision at the time. Arauji also appears more than capable of the kind of quick-combination football Rodgers wants, employing delicate little touches, clever flicks, and intelligent movement to bamboozle the opposition while dovetailing nicely with the winger ahead of him on the flank.
Bernabei, meanwhile, will go down as a rare miss amongst a steady stream of hits from Celtic’s recruitment department.
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