Ryan Christie has established himself as a key member for Celtic (Getty Images)
As per Daily Record, Burnley are hoping to make a bid for Ryan Christie of Celtic in the final days of the transfer window. Burnley boss Sean Dyche has had a long-standing interest in the player and tried to sign him previously.
Ryan Christie is a 25-year-old Scottish midfielder who plays for Celtic. He started his youth career at Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC in 2005 and progressed through the youth teams. The attacking midfielder was promoted to the senior team in 2013.
Celtic signed him in 2015 and loaned him back to Inverness in 2016. He made a total of 76 appearances for Inverness across two spells. After his return, he was again loaned out, this time to Aberdeen for two years. He had a much more prolific spell there, scoring 15 goals and assisting 18 in 57 games (source – Transfermarkt).
On returning to Celtic, he became a regular name in the starting line-up. In total, he has made 105 appearances for Celtic, scoring 35 goals and assisting another 32. He is also starting to gather more time for the national team, with 13 caps to his name so far.
Burnley have never been a great attacking side. Instead, they rely on a solid defensive base to neutralize their opponents. Their squad lacks a natural playmaker. The likes of Jack Cork, Ashley Westwood and Josh Brownhill are defensive-minded midfielders. Even new signing Dale Stephens (source – Independent) is more of a traditional central midfielder rather than a No.10.
Ryan Christie is a natural No.10 who can create goals as well as take his chances in front of goal. He will add a bit of goal threat from the middle, which Burnley usually lack. Forwards Ashley Barnes and Chris Wood would surely benefit from his creativity.
It almost feels like Ryan Christie is the perfect fit for the Clarets as they lack a creative player like him. He would provide them with much-needed goals and provide more chances for the forwards to feed on.
Burnley should push to complete a deal for Christie as a contract renewal for him is in discussion at Celtic. That would complicate matters too much and no doubt spike up the transfer fee, or maybe even jeopardise the transfer altogether given that Celtic would have the situation under their control.
