Scottish Premiership champions Celtic appear to have made Huddersfield Town’s Tommy Smith their first-choice right-back target.
Tommy Smith to Celtic is starting to look like a real possibility.
According to the Daily Record, the Huddersfield Town defender is locked in talks with the Scottish Premiership champions, who appear to have identified him as Mikael Lustig’s replacement at right-back.
Smith wouldn’t come cheap with The Terriers asking for £4 million. But Celtic have already shown that they’re ready and willing to invest this summer and don’t be surprised if the 27-year-old joins Boli Mbombo and Christopher Jullien at Parkhead.
Now, over the last few years, the best right-back in Scotland has been plying his trade at Ibrox rather than on the green half of Glasgow.
James Tavernier has been a revelation at Rangers, wearing the captain’s armband with pride and producing an outstanding number of goals and assists from the right-hand flank.
But, in Smith, Celtic could finally have a full-back capable of matching Tavernier’s impact north of the border. Like Rangers’ number two, Smith is a natural-born leader who has skippered Huddersfield on plenty of occasions in both the Championship and the Premier League.
And he’s capable of providing plenty of quality in the final third too, far more than the ageing Lustig at least. Smith produced four goals and 10 assists as Huddersfield stunned English football by sealing promotion to the top flight in 2016/17 after all.
With Neil Lennon keen to give his full-backs the freedom to bomb on, Smith’s pinpoint delivery and superb right foot could soon be a reliable source of goals at Parkhead.
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