Celtic News Round up - 12/07/21 - 16/07/21


Celtic news round up - Week beginning Monday 12th July

It has been a whirlwind week in terms of Celtic transfer news. I can’t recall the last time we got three signings in a week. It seems the rebuild is taking shape. 


On Monday, Giannis Chorianopoulos said Celtic are not considering loaning out Vasilis Barkas for the 21/22 season. The Greek journalist was backed up by the transfer of Mat Ryan to Real Sociedad later in the day. Ryan had been linked with a move to Celtic since the arrival of Ange Postecoglou. The right wing has been a position Celtic have failed to recruit well in in recent years. The Herald said Celtic are ready to swoop for Siriki Dembele and The Hoops were linked to Bright Osayi-Samuel with Fotospor claiming Fenerbache are expecting offers from Celtic, Rangers and Fulham for the 23 year old but The Sun later exclusively revealed Celtic’s interest in Israeli winger Liel Abada. ONE, an Israeli outlet, also claimed the teenage right winger would travel to Glasgow to finalise the move. This came to fruition later in the week with Celtic officially announcing the signing of Abada on a 5 year deal. 


As well as right wing, right back has been somewhat of a problem position since Mikael Lustig left Celtic. Yes, we had Jeremie Frimpong however the Dutchman only plugged the gap for 18 months before he left for Bayer Leverkusen. Le Parisien said during the week Celtic are in talks with Rennes over the signing of Sacha Boey; they stated the Hoops have made an opening bid. The Herald also said Celtic are in advanced talks with Rennes over the potential transfer of the 20 year old who has just 12 months left on his contract. However, Fabrizio Romano, when tweeting about Carl Starfelt’s move to Celtic, said “Next target: Brandon Soppy”. The whole of that tweet read “Celtic have reached an agreement with Rubin Kazan to sign Carl Starfelt, done deal and here we go. €5m as final fee - negotiations completed. Next target: Brandon Soppy. Official announcement soon for Starfelt, personal terms agreed as advanced one week ago”. Expressen.se also reported that a fee has been agreed between Celtic and Rubin Kazan for the central defender and all that stands in the way of a move is a medical. Both these pieces of news came on Wednesday and I’m currently writing this article on Friday however. 


During a rebuilding period at a club it is inevitable there will be departures. One such player that has been heavily linked with a move away is Kristoffer Ajer. Newcastle reportedly pulled out of the race to sign the Norwegian on Tuesday after finding out Celtic want around £20 million according to the Northern Echo. However John Percy stated that Brentford are close to signing Ajer for around £13.5 million. In my opinion, this seems like a more realistic yet astute fee for a player who has a year left on their deal. 90 Min also understand Brentford have won the race for Ajer. The Sun said he will have a medical in London on Friday the 16th of July. The Bayer Leverkusen boss didn’t seem to happy with this, telling Bild Ajer had agreed to join the German club before Brentford came in. The only matter that stood in the way of the transfer was the fee. Ryan Christie has been linked to several clubs but the most obscure came this week. The Sun reported of Al Hilal’s interest in the Scottish International. They claim he could be given a “life changing” offer from the Saudi Arabian club. 


We spoke last week about a proposal to bring Celtic and Rangers B teams into Scottish League Two however we found out on Tuesday such proposal was rejected. Another rejected affair in regards to Celtic this week was the proposal to have 18,000 fans into Celtic Park for the crucial Champions League qualifier against Midtjylland. This was after it was confirmed Scotland will move to Level 0 of COVID restrictions this coming Monday. Although on Friday, Celtic announced only half of that number would be allowed to attend Parkhead for the match, around 9,000. Going back to the subject of youth, earlier in the week Adam Leventhal, a journalist who works for The Athletic, tweeted about Celtic signing Irish u21 international, Bosun Lawal. He tweeted: “Acad POTY Bosun Lawal agrees 3 yr deal with Celtic, completing med this morning & due to fly to Scotland later today. Compensation understood as £120k. Originally offered 1yr (+ yr option) but ROI u21 takes different path”. Sure as fate, Celtic announced his signing on their website on Friday evening, stating Lawal has signed a three year deal and he will initially play for the Celtic B team. The 18 year old signed for Celtic from Watford. One of Celtic’s youth products, went in the other direction this week. Vincent Angelini, a 17 year old goalkeeper, joined the new Premier League side on a two year deal, with the option of a further third. 


Celtic played their third pre season match on Wednesday. The Hoops faced English Championship side Bristol City and drew 0-0 with them at City’s new training centre. There was no sign of Leigh Griffiths in the team because he was sent home from the training camp last week however on Wednesday, the 30 year old was cleared of any criminality after the striker reportedly sent messages to a young girl. We’ll finish off with some transfer news. Richard Wilson is a sports journalist who is an expert in all things South Eastern European football. Wilson tweeted “Celtic have spoken via intermediaries re a deal for Kristijan Lovric (that’s been on the cards for ages) but have expressly stated the basis that they will pay £5m (£1m above the asking price) if Gorica will hang on to see if Celtic advance in Europe and afford that”. Lovric is a left winger although it seems Celtic have just got themselves a player in this position. Without warning, rumour or report, Japanese club Vissel Kobe announced they had agreed terms with Celtic over the sale of Kyogo Furuhashi. Celtic later followed this up with a tweet confirming his arrival. Furuhashi is a 26 year old forward who is currently top scorer in the J. League with 14 goals in 20 games. Hopefully the Japanese will bring this goal scoring form to Celtic. 


As far as signings go, it was a very progressive week. Yes, there’s still some positions that, without question, need addressed but an impromptu signing such as Furuhashi should be encouraging for Celtic fans. Let’s hope Ange Postecoglou is looking at the defence as the next area to strengthen. 

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