Celtic must revive swoop for "athletic" £13.5m-rated gem who's a "young Gareth Bale” - opinion

Celtic were incredibly busy behind the scenes during the previous summer and winter transfer windows in terms of the number of deals that took place.

While a number of new faces came in on permanent and loan deals, certain other players ended up moving in the opposite direction.

However, one player that the Hoops were linked with that didn’t end up joining the Parkhead club is Aaron Hickey.

In the 2020 summer transfer window, the full-back joined Serie A club Bologna from Hearts in a deal worth a reported fee of £1.5m.

Since then, the 19-year-old has made 40 appearances for the Italian club across all competitions, scoring four goals and providing one assist in the process.

Prior to making his move to Italy, the defender made 34 appearances for Hearts with one goal and one assist to his name.

In addition to his very useful goal contributions for his current team, which have all come in this current Serie A campaign, the Scotsman has also shown with his overall performances what a mistake Celtic made by not signing him.

According to WhoScored, the former Hearts talent has earned himself a rating of 6.76, which currently makes him the third-highest rated player at Bologna.

This highlights what a great bit of business it was from them to buy the teenager, who is now valued at £13.5m according to Transfermarkt.

To further highlight how impressive the youngster has been, the full-back has racked up a higher percentage of shots on target than any of his teammates that have had more than two attempts at goal.

Meanwhile, only attacker Marko Arnautovic (27) has made more successful dribbles than Hickey (25), showing how capable he is on the ball.

Labelled as an “athletic” player that has shades of being like a “young Gareth