There were two ways to look at the news that Carl Starfelt had been appointed Celta Vigo’s co-captain just weeks after joining the La Liga club from Scottish Premiership champions Celtic.
On one hand, it speaks volumes about Carl Starfelt’s experience, his mindset and the former Celtic defender’s natural-born leadership skills.
On the other, it shines a harsh UV light on a lack of other genuine candidates in the Celta dressing room, bringing to mind Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s admission, in conversation with The Athletic, that Harry Maguire picked up the Manchester United armband largely due in part to a shortage of willing figureheads.
“(Starfelt) is professional both on and off the field. He is an example of helping the young players in the tells,” Celta boss Rafa Benitez tells La Voz de Galicia.
“He is appointed by us to take that responsibility. We appointed Carl considering that a different profile was needed.”
Celtic sold Carl Starfelt to Celta Vigo
The Sweden international, a two-time Scottish Premiership champion with Celtic, has been a bright spark since his £4 million move to Galicia. Starfelt even captained his new club for the first time against Las Palmas last time out.
A game which ended in a 2-1 defeat, and serves almost to sum up everything wrong with the team former Real Madrid, Chelsea, Liverpool and Inter Milan coach Benitez inherited over the summer.
Celta dominated, created and squandered chance after chance, and were then knocked to the canvas by a Las Palmas sucker punch. It was a similar story against Barcelona. 2-0 up and then 3-2 down in the space of seven minutes.
A relegation battle looms already
Celta are 18th, only three points off 20th, and things would only be worse without Starfelt at the back.
A turnaround in form does not feel out of the question – especially with strikers Tasos Douvikas and Jurgen Strand Larsen promising and the talismanic Iago Aspas still around – but, as things stand, it looks as if Starfelt has swapped a third-straight league title for a relegation dogfight.
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