Stokes’ second chance at Celts

NEIL LENNON wants to hand Hibs star Anthony Stokes a second chance to join him at his boyhood love, Celtic.

In 2007, the 21-year-old rejected the opportunity to play alongside the current manager-in-waiting at Celtic Park.

He opted instead to take up a bigger offer from Sunderland.

It was a decision that saw him branded a money-grabber by Hoops boss of the time, Gordon Strachan, and one which went disastrously wrong as he clashed with Roy Keane at the Stadium of Light.

Regret

But now Lennon, set to be confirmed as Celtic boss in the coming week, is ready to offer Stokes a second chance to join the Parkhead side.

On international duty with the Republic of Ireland last week, Stokes spoke of his regret at having put money ahead of his career.

He admitted he had been wrong to turn down the switch to Glasgow’s East End.

That prompted Lennon to instantly add him to his list of summer targets.

He’s been a big fan of the player’s natural goalscoring ability ever since he first joined Falkirk on loan from Arsenal as a teenager.

Lennon knows because the striker is contracted to Hibs until 2012, he would have to pay £2 million-plus to get his man.

Disastrously

That’s more than Celtic would ideally like to pay at a time when they are also looking to land Liam Lawrence, Jimmy Bullard and Joe Ledley.

But in addition to looking to strengthen his midfield, the Hoops’ coach is also determined to add goals to a team that is losing Robbie Keane and, most probably, Georgios Samaras from last season’s ranks.

With his previous top target, Gary Hooper of Scunthorpe, now looking set to stay put in England, the issue has become more pressing.

Lennon has also been pleased to learn of the Hibs player’s growing maturity off the park.

Discipline was a problem for the Irishman when he was younger, but he has been working regularly with a sports psychologist, Dan Abrahams.

Crediting Abrahams with being a massive influence, Stokes has said he will look to continue the connection for the rest of his career.

The Sunday Post

Get him signed would be fantastic here and i think Lennon could man manage him to not be a ned off the park ,

 

This is similar to Keane saga, we're linked with Stokes every single transfer window. And hopefully he * of to EPL or Champ so we don't have to put up with this bollocks.

He told us no once, he doesn't deserve another chance. He wouldn't really improve our squad, he'd just be another Riordan.

Also, £2m for him?

 

why are we gettinglinked with aboot 200 playrs atm?

 

get him to * had his chance to join us the * didnt make it in sunderland whats the chances of him making it here none now * off

 

Good finisher but feel it could be a riorden scenario all over again. Think we should aim higher.

 

The lad sticks the ball in the back of net with the service he would get here compared to Hibs i think he could score 25/30 goals a season that is what we need and wins games ,

He was young back then and made a mistake he has come back up here to Hibs and proved his worth up here again he is a spl striker why should we be aiming higher than that ?

People wanted Hooper who scored goals in the English championship and who would cost 2/ 3million so why not Stokes ?

 

Absolutly +1 whens the last time iv'e lost count i dont know!

 

I like the lad. We all make mistakes, £2M isn't too expensive for a proven goal scorer imo

 

the worst thing is we dont even have a manager yet to decide who to sign

 

I would be prepared to give Stokes a second chance.

We need to forget about Robbie Keane at the moment and focus on bringing players we can actually afford.

Get back to reality, Stokes is the calibre of striker we can attract and afford at the club.

I'm not saying he's great and I certainly wouldn't be overly disappointed if there was no truth in this rumour, I just think some of the names thrown about at times are unrealistic.

 

wouldn't be my first choice but still a player I like alot, think he will be an ideal replacement for skippy

 

I'm not a bitter person but he had his chance to play for us and he blew it. He is an average striker, certainly not as good as what McDonald was. If we were to sign him i would be looking at 750k, perhaps 1 mil but no way is he worth splashing 2 million on. The guy completely flopped at Sunderland and teams like Hibs and Falkirk are more his level.

The danger of his off-field antics will always remain no matter how many psychologists he visits. He's no different to Riordan in that sense.

 

more like the reserves

 

We should take Stokes as he will guarantee us 25+ goals a season in the SPL. He is a penalty box predator and is good with his head too. At £2M he would be a snip, and could provide the goals to win the league for us. Good to see that Lenny is targeting players who will make a vast difference
to our team next year

 

If Stokes is good enough to bust down our defence, which I agree has been quite *, but is GOOD compared to most of the SPL... He is good enough to be a Celt. 2 M is a bit much though I agree

 

i completely agree that stokes is good enough for celtic but only in the SPL but i think celtic need someone who could perform in europe aswell and im not sure if stokes would ,i do think he'd be a decent signing though

 

hes only good for spl we need proven european scorer

 

I personally think he would be a good signing. He's proven that he can do it in the SPL with Falkirk and Hibs. However I would rather we tried to sign Bellamy/Keane or maybe even McCormack before we went for him, but I wouldn't be disappointed with us signing him for around £2mill