Surely Mikael Lustig’s long-term Celtic future is uncertain.
The Swedish defender was expected to serve out a one-match ban in last night’s visit of Dundee, but the postponement of that one has caused the 31-year-old’s ban to carry over to Celtic’s next Premiership game, which could be the visit to Ibrox on March 11 unless the Dundee clash is rescheduled before then.
Cristian Gamboa and Anthony Ralston are the obvious choices to deputise for Lustig and could it be the beginning of the end for the 2012 signing at Parkhead if one of those two impresses?
In truth, Lustig has been abysmal in recent months and looks more of a liability with each game, having been sent off in Sunday’s 2-0 win at Aberdeen for two yellow cards.
That performance followed a shocker in Russia last Thursday, which in itself was another in a series of increasingly worrying performances from Lustig and you wonder whether manager Brendan Rodgers could move him on when the summer transfer window opens if Gamboa or Ralston impresses at Ibrox.
It might be time for a changing of the guard at right-back, similar to how Kieran Tierney displaced Emilio Izaguirre on the opposite side of defence in late 2015 and hasn’t looked back since.
Celtic fans would love academy lad Ralston to be that guy, though Gamboa has looked a decent defender at times and if either one has a good game against Graeme Murty’s side then it’s very difficult to see Lustig getting back in Rodgers’s best XI in the short term.
Contracted until 2019, Lustig, on £24,000 per week according to The Daily Star, is a big earner at the Bhoys and maybe, just maybe, the Celtic boss will free up that £1.2 million-a-year salary by calling time on the defender’s time in Glasgow this summer.
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