New doubt over Greg Taylor’s Dynamo Zagreb offer

The Croatian club has sacked their manager, Fabio Cannavaro. The Italy World Cup-winning icon has been dismissed from his role despite the club holding third place in Croatia’s top flight.

Greg Taylor has been heavily linked with a transfer to Celtic’s Champions League Matchday Six opponents once his contract at the Hoops ends this season.

‘Fabio Cannavaro is no longer the coach of the Dinamo’

A club statement reads: “Fabio Cannavaro is no longer the coach of the Dinamo first team as of this Wednesday. He was on the bench of the Maksimir club for a little over three months and led the team in 14 competitive and three friendly matches.”

“The former celebrated Italian national team player, winner of the Ballon d’Or, took over the coaching role at Dinamo on December 29th of last year, replacing Nenad Bjelica.”

“In ten league matches, he recorded five wins, two draws and three losses, with Dinamo remaining in third place in the league table, while in the cup competition, in extremely difficult conditions and on a soggy pitch at Maksimir, they were stopped in the quarter-finals, where Osijek won 1-0.”

“The great 2-1 victory against AC Milan increased Dinamo’s performance in the Champions League to a record 11 points, and only an incredible combination of circumstances and the outcome of other matches left the Blues below the line on the way to the knockout stage.”

“We would like to thank coach Cannavaro from the bottom of our hearts for his great effort, commitment and friendliness and wish him all the best in his future sporting and life journey. The team will be temporarily taken over by the current assistant coach, Sandro Perkovic, for the rest of the season.”

This seems another bizarre move from the current Croatian champions who have languished behind Hadjuk Split and Rijeka for the entirety of the season.

Should Greg Taylor move on for pastures new in Croatia, the Scotland international will have to play Europa Conference League qualifiers in the summer – a stark contrast to one Champions League playoff qualifier for Celtic if he chooses to extend his contract.

It looks beyond doubt that these are most likely the last few months of the left-back’s career at Celtic, and hopefully he will depart with a third Treble since his arrival to the club in 2019.

Conor Spence

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