TBR View: Should Celtic have tried harder to sign Ben Pearson?

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Ben Pearson made his debut for Bournemouth this week and he’s already showing Celtic why they should have tried harder to secure his signature.

The combative midfielder swapped Preston for the Vitality Stadium in January, despite reports at the beginning of the month suggesting interest from Celtic.

It was claimed by The Scottish Sun that the Hoops had already made contact with the 26-year-old over signing a pre-contract arrangement at Celtic Park.

The move never came to fruition and Pearson penned terms with Bournemouth for a small fee of £500,000 paid to the Lilywhites.

Last Tuesday the maestro enjoyed his first outing for the Cherries as they swept aside Premier League Burnley in the FA Cup.

He was majestic throughout and performed the box-t0-box duties with absolute aplomb.

As he settles into life at Bournemouth, Celtic might be left to rue their decision not to try harder to sign him.

Ismaila Soro has been a standout performer for the Hoops in the engine room this season, proving a bright spark in an otherwise disappointing campaign.

There is enough evidence to suggest that Pearson could have still done a job for Celtic though.

Crossroads

Olivier Ntcham has joined Marseille and it’ll be interesting to see if Callum McGregor and Ruan Christie are still Celtic players when next season gets underway.

Scott Brown isn’t getting any younger and will be 36 by the time the next campaign begins.

As a result, adding Pearson might have provided an injection of energy that has so desperately been lacking this season.

They trail Rangers by 21 points in the title race and they’re approaching the snooker required stage for this season.

Only Celtic will know why they chose not to pursue the services of Pearson but as he settles at Bournemouth, it’s looking like a sizeable error of judgement.