Scottish Premiership giants Rangers reportedly want Martin Skrtel, but Steven Gerrard’s former Liverpool teammate knows the Celtic manager well, too.
Could one of Steven Gerrard’s primary transfer targets at Rangers also find himself on Celtic’s radar this summer?
According to the Sun, Gerrard is keen to reunite with his former Liverpool teammate Martin Skrtel at Ibrox. The 33-year-old centre-back is currently in Turkey with Fenerbahce and, should Rangers pull off a deal, they would be reinforcing a rather leaky back line with a defender whose warrior-like commitment is the stuff of legend.
But Gerrard is not the only Old Firm boss who knows Skrtel well.
The Slovakian spent three years under Brendan Rodgers at Anfield and clearly has a lot of respect for the current Celtic manager.
“Brendan is a great manager. I played with him for two to three seasons at Liverpool. I am not surprised he is doing a great job there,” Skrtel, who came close to winning the Premier League with Rodgers in 2014, told the Daily Record (7 October, page 61).
And it has been well documented that Celtic could do with a centre-back this summer, particularly as Dedryck Boyata, Jozo Simunovic and Erik Sviatchenko are all facing uncertain futures at Parkhead, while January signings Marvin Compper and Jack Hendry have not made the required impact thus far.
Celtic do tend to target young, promising talents with a re-sale value but have been known to switch things up now and again, as the additions of Compper and Kolo Toure prove.
So Skrtel would be a fine addition for either of the two Glasgow giants.
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