Jack Ross reportedly wanted Ryan Christie at Sunderland – but Scotland’s Kevin De Bruyne is firing Celtic to the Scottish Premiership title instead.
With just over ten minutes remaining at a balmy New Douglas Park on Saturday, Celtic were making tough work of killing off ten-man Hamilton Academical.
But once the most influential midfielder in Scotland burst down the left-hand side and whipped an inch-perfect cross into the path of a grateful Christiopher Jullien, the result, not to mention another three point haul, was never in doubt.
It was Ryan Christie, not for the first time this season and not for the last, who delivered the knockout blow with that hammer of a left-foot. And there was something distinctly De Bruyne-like about the way Celtic’s number 17 served up a goal on a garnished plate for Jullien late in the second half.
“His energy’s fantastic, his enthusiasm’s fantastic but more than anything it’s his quality,” raved manager Neil Lennon to Celtic TV, suggesting that Christie’s 14th assist of a remarkable season was one Manchester City’s Belgian superstar would have been proud to call his own.
“The quality of the ball for the goal is De Bruyne-esque.”
Scotland’s De Bruyne
With every long-range rocket, every defence-splitting through-ball, it becomes easier and easier to forget that Christie was facing an uncertain future at Parkhead less than two years ago.
According to the Scottish Sun in August 2018, Jack Ross was hoping to offer the former Inverness starlet a fresh start below the border at Sunderland after an impressive season out on loan at Aberdeen. Celtic, for what it’s worth, were apparently willing to cash in on Christie if The Black Cats were willing to offer them a fee of around £500,000.
No player is ‘unsellable’ at Celtic, that is the nature of the game in Scotland, but it’s fair to say Christie is worth far more than half a million these days. The Hoops, you would imagine, value their peerless playmaker at an eight-figure sum.
With 28 goals and 23 assists since the start of the 2018/19 season, perhaps only the exceptional Odsonne Edouard will stop the 24-year-old from lifting the SPFA Player of the Year award this spring.
And considering that Sunderland remain hamstrung as ever by a lack of cutting edge in the final third, especially since Aiden McGeady’s ill-advised visit to a certain fast food joint, Black Cats supporters can only imagine how their fortunes might have changed if Scotland’s answer to Kevin De Bruyne had swapped those green hoops for red stripes.
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