[Link] Darlington Nagbe

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...on-Nagbe-Brendan-Rodgers-seeks-playmaker.html

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers is weighing up a January move for American international Darlington Nagbe.

The 26-year-old Portland Timbers playmaker, who has been extensively scouted by the Scottish champions, has flown in to Glasgow to take in the clash with Barcelona and was given a guided tour of Parkhead yesterday.

Nagbe, who was born in Liberia but moved to Ohio as a child, scored his first goal for the United States against Ecuador in May.

However he recently dropped out of coach Jurgen Klinsmann’s squad prior to the German’s sacking.

Son of former Liberia captain Joe Nagbe, he became an American citizen last September and has been capped 10 times by the US.

Celtic sources say there is an interest in the player and that both parties are using his trip to Glasgow to decide if they want to pursue a deal.

Valued in the region of £1.5million, Nagbe is one of a number of box-to-box midfielders under consideration by Rodgers, with out-of-favour Crystal Palace star Jordon Mutch also on the radar.

 

I know nothing about him

 

Though I live in the US, I don't watch much MLS, so I can't comment on his performances for Portland. That said, I watch almost every USMMT match, and he did very well when brought on by Klinsmann in a bunch of games early this year. He definitely is more of a No 8 than a 10 (as the Sun intimated), and he is quite good doing the midfield dirty work as well as picking out a pass. When Klinsi didn't pick him more recently because of his man-love for Jermaine Jones, Nagbe went on the aforementioned strop. I think he'd be a good pickup, though I don't think he would go right into the 11. Probably spell Brown later in the year after the meat of the schedule is finished.

 

Lots of talk on twitter about us apparently touring him around the stadium, as was also said in the article. Knew absolutely nothing about this until I saw it tweeted earlier today, now both The Sun and Daily Record push out stories about it. Not saying it's untrue, but it seems odd to hear absolutely nothing about him and then twitter rumours appear and we've suddenly "extensively scouted" him.

If this is true and he has in fact had a tour, you'd think there's a decent chance it happens? Can't see us bringing a player for a tour, let alone a North American based one if we were simply going to see what happens. As for the player himself, never seen him play. As Drosejr said, I'm a Canadian and very rarely watch the MLS.

 

"Who Da * is That Guy?"

 

Great name bring him home

 

Looks like a Kante type player. Could be a gem

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@Diegan help us out here bud!

 

Looks decent..

 

Looks ok in the Youtube video but the football and the defending in particular looks * rotten.

 

He'll do well in our league then.

 

Haha true. The defending here isn't great but it's at least fairly physical, the challenges he was riding in that clip were so weak man.

 

I definitely think he'll get a lot less space here. Some players, who have good ability, can't cope with the lack of space afforded to them here.

 

He's not a bad player, good age too, but he's not what we need IMO.

 

What is he lacking from what we need?

 

Didn't say he was lacking, just not what we need. I'm not sure where we'd fit him in currently. The ideal target should be someone in the mould of Wanyama. Maybe this spells the end for a few of our other midfielders, though. If so...good luck.

 

From someone who watches a lot of MLS Nagbe is arguably the most talented players in the league. Before anyone starts bashing the MLS remember we play in the SPL... I would take him in a heartbeat, he plays good football and is technically great. Great buy if we can get him for 1.5m but I don't see Portland letting him go for that

 

I know you didn't specifically say it, but I thought that, if you thought he wasn't what we need, he was lacking other qualities that we need. So he's not a defensive midfielder.