Monaco, Vfb Stuttgart and Wolfsburg have been linked with a move for Maritimo striker Baba Diawara.
Celtic first registered their interest in the Senegal striker during the summer transfer window with other clubs joining the hunt with Diawara leading the scoring charts with 9 goals from 13 league matches.
Monaco have been credited with making a €3m bid for the Maritimo striker as well as interest in Ibrahim Toure of UAE side Ajman.
Diawara’s form this season has brought him to the attention of a number of clubs with Stuttgart and Wolfsburg both looking for strikers.
Maritimo seem happy with a fee of €3m for the player who has been brought through from their own academy.
Celtic established a working relationship with Maritimo during the last transfer window when only the issue of a work permit prevented the deal from being completed.
“This weekend, there were a lot of clubs – including Celtic – watching not only Baba, but also other players from our team and some from Benfica,” Maritimo president Carlos Pereira admitted last month.
“I’ve spoken again with the Scots recently and we are ready to resume talks.
“We failed to reach an agreement before, but anything is possible now. It’s a matter of sitting down and talking through our requirements.”
Neil Lennon has gone on record to say that he would like to add a striker and centre-half during the transfer window but played down speculation of doing business yesterday as he looked ahead to the Scottish Cup tie with Peterhead.
“We are still looking to strengthen, but if we can’t do that I’m happy with the squad we’ve got now,” the Celtic boss said. “They are all working hard to catch the eye so competition for places is good as well.”
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We might as well forget about Diawara. Our well known footballing expert, PL, decided in the summer that he wasn’t worth £2.5m. It’s nice to know our CEO is such a great judge of football talent and decides who we buy, rather than those pesky football people.
These stories tend to grow arms & legs, if Lennon REALLY wanted this guy then it is entirely HIS responsibility to ensure the board back him or walk if h feels he is being undermined.
I’m quite certain the player would not be exclusively talking only to Celtic, his club & his agent wouldn’t be so stupid to put all eggs in one basket.
Similarly I would expect Celtic to have alternatives if we feel we are merely being used to help raise the interest in the player, up the price & his wages / agent’s fee.
Lawell is simply the fall guy, every manager from O’Neill, Strachan, Mowbray & Lennon had the opportunity to make the decisions who came in or leave if being over-ruled. Any journalist worth his salt would surely ask the simple question – WHO has the final say on transfer dealings and kill any speculation. No club gets every player they target, so it’s easy to lump blame on others.
Years ago it was Ginola, press said we were close but I don’t think we were ever an option..players want the max they can get and don’t care where they play – witness those in Russia / China rather than the best leagues in Spain, England, Germany, Italy.
Why didn’t PL even apply for a visa for Diawara, if the manager has the final say ? NL seemed desperate to have him in the summer- when no-one else wanted him. We could have had him for £2.5m, whereas now he’s worth double that. Another brilliant financial coup by PL.
This is not an isolated case. Many deals have been scuppered at the last minute, and you have to ask the question, did PL have any intention of buying the player in the first place, or was just going through the motions so he could say, we tried- his usual transfer window pantomime to keep the season ticket sales up.
PL’s mantra for the last four years seems to have been ‘save a little; lose a lot’. Diawara is just the latest example of this. Go back to Fletcher for one of the first examples.
I dont believe for a second that NL has the final say in who comes and goes because there’s no thought given to team building, the type of player we need, or the positions we need better players in. The only deciding factor is the cost. And often it’s only a couple of 100K that means we choose a player we dont need over one we do. No manager would buy players in this way. But a CEO would.
best thing for celtic to do is keep schtum till we get the player or whoever
Celtic need to add two or three players. This will give the team and supporters a huge psychological boost for the second half of the season. It will also, more importantly, strengthen the team. We are going to lose 2 players as well.
I think Ki and Matthews are most likely as this may bring in 9-10 million, too much to turn down. Celtic should only buy if they are adding quality. Lawwell surely understands this as Rangers will probably be weakened during the next three weeks and this opportunity should be exploited to the full by Celtic.
Whether it will is anyone’s guess. Previous actions would indicate that Celtic will spend very little…I hope I’m wrong.
If we are to spend little sign Sandaza just for the annoyance value. £350,000 will get him and he will be delighted to sign. We only paid a similar amount for Commons and he was a revelation (last season!).