IS EMMANUEL DENNIS CELTIC’S NEXT FREE AGENT SIGNING?
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
I wrote earlier today about the availability of Takehiro Tomiyasu, who was recently freed by Arsenal. However, if reports emerging from England today are to be believed, Brendan Rodgers may be lined up a totally different EPL star for Celtic’s next signing.
27-year-old winger Emmanuel Dennis is now a free agent after leaving Nottingham Forest by mutual consent earlier this week. Â
Who is Emmanuel Dennis, Celtic’s Possible Wing Target?
To call him a journeyman would probably be a bit unfair on Emmanuel Dennis, Celtic too, probably wouldn’t appreciate such a label. However, I can’t really think of another word to describe a player who has played for 8 different clubs across 5 different countries and is still only 27 years old.
Like yesterday’s Europa League deadline day acquisition Kelechi Iheanacho, Dennis has also been capped for Nigeria at international level. However, he hasn’t featured for the Super Eagles since 2022, so I don’t think we need to worry about losing him to the African Cup of Nations over the winter holidays.
This is a hard one to call. Is there a player in there? Absolutely. Afterall, Dennis has played and scored goals at the likes of Club Brugge, Nottingham Forest and most recently Watford.
However, his latest attempt to jump start his career, a loan move to Blackburn Rovers last season didn’t go well. Despite joining Rovers in January, he only made 6 appearances, and failed to find the net even once.
Again though, this is a guy who, at the peak of his powers managed to score not once but twice against Real Madrid on their own turf. Granted, that was 6 years ago, but at 27 Dennis is still young enough that perhaps he could recapture that form.
Again, whilst I’m not exactly thrilled that Celtic have been reduced to chasing after Nottingham Forest’s cast-offs, Dennis would make for exactly the kind of rehabilitation challenge that Brendan Rodgers relishes.
Of course, the manager himself seems to cut something of a forlorn figure these days too, after having this humiliating sequence of events play out despite assurances from above that we wouldn’t sell Adam Idah until we had a firm replacement.
Celtic need to make the best with what we have though, and what few options remain available to us in the free agent market. Emmanuel Dennis would be a decent squad edition. He has the pedigree, if not the recent form.
Again, I think this is much like the Tomiyasu situation I discussed earlier. Provided we can negotiate a reasonable wage package with the player, this is a low-risk investment. We could probably move him on for a couple of million in the summer if it doesn’t work out.
I hate to use that phrase again, but, in my opinion, he’s worth a punt.