Bobo is the SPL’s only loss to ACN

The African Cup of Nations is finally almost here, and teams in the English Premiership and elsewhere (especially Portsmouth) are bracing for the loss of some of their best talents for up to a month. The Premiership alone is losing 34 players to the Cup of Nations, but I’m happy to say that the SPL will not be losing a huge amount of star power, as only one SPL player is on a Cup of Nations squad, that one being Celtic’s Guinea international defender, Bobo Balde.

Balde just returned to the Celtic squad, bringing some much-needed stability to an injury-depleted back line otherwise made up mostly of displaced midfielders. On his return, the leaky Celtic defense suddenly managed two straight clean sheets. The second one can be partially credited to the return of Artur Boruc, but there was a definite difference in the defensive play over the past few weeks. Now, as Celtic weathers a long time off (their next match isn’t until the 12th, with a pretty pedestrian cup tie against Stirling Albion), they will lose this stabilizing force once again. Whether Wee Gordon brings in any new defenders in January is yet to be seen – looks likely he’ll pick up Hinkel and Coelho. Still, though he doesn’t have the worries of a Harry Redknapp right now, I’m sure Strachan would prefer not to lose yet another of his limited defensive options.

Category: Celtic

Tags: African Cup of Nations, Artur Boruc, Bobo Balde, Celtic, Gordon Strachan, Guinea, Harry Redknapp, Portsmouth

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