Joe Allen Would Cost “Too Much” for Celtic

Liverpool midfielder Joe Allen’s future is uncertain, with just a year left on his current deal and no discussions as to what comes next expected before he returns from the Euros this summer. The player himself has said he’s happy with that approach, and that he will make a decision once he re-joins his club in pre-season.

If he does choose to move on—or if the club choose not to seek to negotiate an extended deal and begin to shop him around—an emerging potential destination by almost every account is SPL champions Celtic. That’s almost wholly down to the recent arrival of former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers on the green side of Glasgow.

Few will need reminding Rodgers made Allen his top priority when he arrived at Liverpool from Swansea, with the midfielder making the switch to Anfield for £15M in the summer of 2012. It probably wouldn’t be that big a surprise, then, if Rodgers now sought to take Allen to Scotland. Allen’s agent, though, doesn’t see it happening.

"This is the first I’ve heard of it," said Allen’s agent, Glenn Corcoran, when he asked today about whether his client just might have a future in the Scottish Premier League. "Joe has a year left at Liverpool and nobody has spoken to us yet about extending that, but the club have not spoken to us about selling him, either.

"I haven’t given any thought whatsoever to it with regards to any club. If Liverpool were willing to sell—and that’s a big if because I’ve not had that conversation—they would ask for too much money for him. I don’t know if Celtic at this moment would be willing to spend that sort of money and wages would also be an issue."

It may be the first that Corcoran has heard about it, but given the likelihood rumours linking Allen to Celtic would crop up following Rodgers’ arrival there, it’s hardly likely he hasn’t thought about the possibility—if anything, his insistence that Celtic probably couldn’t afford Allen suggests he very much has given it thought.

In the end, though, those thoughts would seem to amount to no way is Joe Allen ending up following Brendan Rodgers to Celtic this summer no matter what happens at Liverpool. So. Anyone in for a bit of Fabio Borini to Celtic rumour mongering?