Paddy McNair’s comments should have Celtic ruing reported £5m failure

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Scottish Premiership champions Celtic were reportedly willing to pay £5m to sign Paddy McNair from Jonathan Woodgate’s Middlesbrough.

Paddy McNair has given Middlesbrough fans something to cheer during a miserable season at the Riverside.

With two wins and a paltry 13 goals from their 16 Championship games so far, Boro are peering nervously over their shoulder as the trapdoor to League One creaks ominously open. But as long as McNair remains around, whether patrolling the midfield or filling in at the back, Jonathan Woodgate will at least have one of the division’s most impressive all-rounders to hang his hat upon.

The Northern Echo reported over the summer that Celtic were willing to pay £5 million to bring the 32-time Northern Ireland international to Parkhead. Middlesbrough managed to hang onto their prized asset, however, and thank god they did.

“I feel like I’m playing the best football I ever have done for club and country. So, if I can just keep going and playing well, hopefully the goals will keep coming,” the former Manchester United youngster told the Echo today.

McNair has started all 16 of Boro’s league games under the former England and Newcastle defender. It’s fair to say he is probably the first name on the manager’s team sheet these days with Celtic’s loss proving to be Woodgate’s eternal gain.

But as long as Middlesbrough continue to struggle at the wrong end of the table, keeping hold of McNair will be no easy task.

Celtic cannot rely on ageing skipper Scott Brown forever and there’s a place at the heart of Neil Lennon’s midfield for an all-action enforcer with the potential to get better and better – someone like McNair.

Brown has rolled back the years with a series of typically tenacious performances at the heart of Neil Lennon’s engine room both at home and on the continent of late but Celtic are still lacking a natural, long-term successor.

McNair might be shining in a more box-to-box role right now but a player who takes to new roles like a duck to water would have few problems dictating things from deep.