Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has used Erik Sviatchenko sparingly since the turn of the year – and he’s not happy about it.
Celtic fans are used to bidding farewell to their best players. After all, as soon as clubs in England came calling, the likes of Virgil Van Dijk, Gary Hooper, Joe Ledley and Ki-Sung Yeung didn’t stick around much longer.
And it appears that Danish centre-back Eric Sviatchenko could be the next to make the move south of the border, as reported by BT.
Yet, the 25-year-old would not be departing Celtic Park in a blaze of glory after outgrowing the humble surrounds of the Scottish Premiership. Instead, Sviatchenko’s season has stuttered since the turn of the year and he appears to be in the rather unique position of being forced out of Celtic and into a bigger league with bigger wages.
Jozo Simunovic and Dedryck Boyata have become manager Brendan Rodgers’ go-to defensive pairing in recent months, meaning Sviatchenko has started just seven of Celtic’s last 13 Scottish Premiership matches.
He even missed out on the 5-0 thrashing of Hearts at Tynecastle which sealed a sixth successive Scottish Premiership title.
And with The Sun reporting in January that he was being eyed up by both Leicester City and Southampton, who intriguingly brought Van Dijk to England two years ago, it appears that a summer exit for Sviatchenko is now more probable than possible.
@atl1981 I don’t fancy him either. Was saying as much to the boys on Sunday. Never out the papers talking himself up as well.
— Barry (@baz_2511) April 6, 2017
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