JULIAN ARAUJO: CELTIC’S DERBY DAY SAVIOR?
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- Jan 2
- 3 min read
For all the recent criticism, and most of it is entirely justified, of Celtic’s current board and manager, they have, for once at least, acted in a timely manner.
The loan acquisition of Mexican international right sided defender Julian Araujo on day two of the January transfer window gives us much needed reinforcement in a backline which has yet to keep a clean sheet since Wilfried Nancy took the helm.
Let’s not kid ourselves, one decent wing-back isn’t going to transform this team, but it’s certainly a start.
Julian Araujo Celtic Debut Could Come Tomorrow
Despite only training with his new team mates for the first time today, Julian Araujo, Celtic’s first signing under Wilfried Nancy could well be in for the ultimate baptism of fire.
Such has been the utterly woeful performance of Celtic’s defense in recent weeks, anyone who could offer something a bit different may well be given a chance. Araujo is certainly that.
Celtic badly lack right sided options at the moment, both in defense and attack. Hyun Jun Yang has shown clear improvement, first under Martin O’Neill and even under Wilfried Nancy, but he’s never a defender in a million years, no matter how hard he tries. He is to the art of solid defending what Richard Kiel’s “Jaws” character was to dentistry.
Although saying that, if the big man who famously played James Bond’s nemesis were still with us, he’d at least give us some height and physicality in defense!
Speaking of physicality, Araujo is no stranger to a crunching tackle. He has that stereotypical Central/South American temperament. However, if channeled correctly, this could be exactly what we need against the £1.49ers tomorrow.
I expect them to set up to try and bully Celtic, to assert themselves in the midfield and pressure our fragile defense at every opportunity.
Say what you will about the sportsmanship or dishonor of such an approach, but if were unfortunate enough to be managing Rangers, that’s exactly what I’d tell my players to do to.
I’ll be honest, I am not optimistic about tomorrow’s derby at all. And yet, in some kind of twisted logic, that lack of optimism actually has me thinking we might spring a surprise. Because make no mistake, if we do beat Rangers tomorrow it will be a surprising result. They have been the form team of the past month. We would struggle to stay in the top half, if our current run of form played out over an entire season.
It is perhaps a blessing that, for all Celtic are in dire straits right now, but for Rangers having a comically bad start to the season, and Hearts’ recent form becoming increasingly inconsistent, we could have been a lot further out of the picture than we are right now.
As it stands, starting tomorrow, if we win our next 5 games we could well be top of the league by the end of the month.
I have very little confidence that we’ll do that, and whether we win, lose or draw tomorrow, I think it’s only a matter of time until the board finally call time on the failed experiment that is Wilfried Nancy’s reign as Celtic manager.
However, I make no apologies for saying that this is one instance where I would be absolutely delighted to be proven completely and utterly wrong.
