Celtic transfer scouting: Benjamin Siegrist and Connor Barron

Connor Barron

Position: Central midfielder; Age: 19; Club: Aberdeen; Nationality: Scottish

In Scotland, no player's stock has risen quite as quickly as Connor Barron's.

He started the season on loan in League 2 with Kelty Hearts - where he had a productive spell that ultimately helped them win the title - before earning a recall to Aberdeen over the winter break.

He signed a new contract until 2024 and really kicked on under Pittodrie boss Jim Goodwin. Barron ended the season as the bright spark in an otherwise dismal Dons side.

The Scotland under-21 international's performances have reportedly caught Celtic's eye. The Hoops have not replenished their homegrown talent pool in quite a while and in this respect Barron could be the perfect prospect to develop into a starting-level player.

By trade, he is a defensive midfielder who protects the backline while also progressing the ball via a range of passing and carrying. The heatmap below reflects a standard defensive midfield holding position with a right-footed bias; he can progress the ball easier on his stronger foot.

His data is extremely impressive for a player his age in the Premiership. In fact, he was the only teenager playing in a central midfield role to complete over 600 minutes.

Defensively, Barron stands out due to his high-performing defensive metrics. His mobility allows him to press and harry opposition players and his success rate in defensive duels is what you could expect from an experienced holding midfielder.

In possession, he likes taking risks to make things happen and break defensive lines. This leads to several high creativity metrics but also lower accuracy.

From an offensive perspective, Barron gets on the ball frequently and is capable of being a threat to the opposition - although, based on his shot map, he does need to work at moving the ball into better locations to increase his scoring chances.

Overall Barron would be a low-risk, high-reward investment for Celtic. A deal could involve him going back to Aberdeen to get a full season under his belt or even the Hoops potentially taking advantage of the Dons' reported interest in Liam Scales.

Benjamin Siegrist

Position: Goalkeeper; Age: 30; Height: 6ft 4in; Club: Dundee United; Nationality: Swiss

The Swiss keeper has been a regular thorn in Celtic's side for a number of seasons due to his superb shot-stopping ability.

With his contract at Dundee United coming to an end and with Vasilis Barkas moving to FC Utrecht on loan for the season, Siegrist has been heavily linked with Celtic to come in and provide backup and competition for Joe Hart.

Ange Postecoglou’s sides before Celtic had always deployed a goalkeeper that was strong on the ball. With Hart, he moved to a more traditional tried-and-tested shot-stopper after Scott Bain and Barkas failed to gain the manager's confidence in pre-season.

Hart had a very successful campaign, becoming a key leader in the squad and providing many big saves, however weaknesses in his game aerially and on the ball were persistent throughout. Would Siegrist alleviate these issues or is it more of the same?

His percentile chart shows a keeper that dealt with a high volume of shots very well, preventing goals at a good rate.

He is middling for aerial dominance in the league despite his height but in this regard is still ahead of Hart who ranks lower in both aerial duels and exits.

Due to the manner in which Dundee United play and a lack of history in ball-playing teams, his technical skills suggest a weakness in his game which may make him unsuited to Celtic's style of play. Hart may not be elite on the ball but he is safe and had played in systems that were ball-dominant before - aspects that showed over the season.

If Siegrist is simply a low-cost extra backup option then it might indeed make sense to bring in a shot-stopper who is fairly similar to Hart.

However, when taken in conjunction with the fact Bain was recently given a new two-year deal it could block any path Tobi Oluwayemi has to first-team game-time.

If Celtic are intent on bringing in a new keeper to supplement Hart then it is arguably preferrable that it should be one more suited to Postecoglou's style of play - someone capable of staying high and who possesses a wider range of passing.