Celtic are interested in signing AFC Bournemouth and Republic Of Ireland international Mark Travers this summer.
The Scottish champions need to find a goalkeeper following the retirement of former England goalkeeper Joe Hart.
The Irish Sun have reported that Celtic manager Brendan Rogers is keen on Travers’ international teammate Caoimhím Kellleher, but with Liverpool asking for a fee in excess of £15 million, Celtic have looked at Travers as “a more affordable and realistic option”.
Travers made his Premier League debut as a teenager under former manager Eddie Howe towards the end of the 2018/19 Premier League campaign, but his only season as first-choice shot-stopper came under former head coach Scott Parker as AFC Bournemouth clinched promotion from the Championship as runners-up. Travers won a number of end-of-season player awards for his performances during that campaign including the EFL Championship golden glove award.
He has made 77 appearances in all competitions for AFC Bournemouth including 19 in the Premier League, having played second choice behind Neto last season.
It is unclear what the future holds for Travers at Dean Court, Darren Randolph has already been released and Radu’s loan spell has also ended, leaving the Cherries with Neto, Travers and newly signed Alex Paulsen from Australian A-League side Wellington Phoenix, as the Cherries goalkeeping contingent.
The same report goes on to add that AFC Bournemouth head coach “Andoni Iraola is looking to bring in a keeper and is willing to let the Ireland international go at the right price to make room for the new arrival.”
However, AFC Bournemouth have reportedly set a price tag of £10 million for the 25-year-old which is “likely to push Travers beyond (Celtic’s) reach”.
There are also reports that Crystal Palace could be monitoring the situation, but “the London club is also likely to baulk at that fee for a player who has relatively limited top-flight experience.”
Your say…
thegazzyb said…
Travers hasn’t ever had much of a run in the team at this level. But the fact that we kept choosing others over him suggests that he hasn’t staked a claim for the number one slot in training in all this time.
I would have thought that if he really had the potential to be a top keeper, he would have shown it to all at AFCB by now and would have been our undisputed number one for a while.
Neto has shown an unacceptable level of inconsistency for a keeper at this level in my opinion. Very solid spells, followed by horrific spells. He also seems to be emotionally a bit fragile to be anybody’s number one.
For the sake of his career, Travs needs to be starting. If that doesn’t look like happening here next season, then I would expect him to move on.
I’d be happy to keep him here as somebody’s number two personally but would he be happy to accept that?
If we want to progress, I do believe that we’ll need an upgrade on both though. – To join the conversation, click here.
