Celtic close in on signing Croatian defender
The 21-year-old has been identified to replace Virgil van Dijk but Dinamo Zagreb refused to consider a deal ahead of the Champions League play-off’s.
Despite seeing off Albanian side Skenderbeu on a 6-2 aggregate Dinamo have been back in talks with Celtic over a deal for Simunovic.
One Croatian source has claimed that an €8m deal has been agreed but the upfront figure is likely to be closer to €6m which would be the highest transfer fee paid by Celtic since Scott Brown arrived from Hibs in 2007.
Negotiations are believed to be at advanced stage with Celtic confident of completing the deal tomorrow without any last minute transfer dramas.
Simunovic has been a regular in the Dinamo defence over the last two seasons and has picked up four Croatian under-21 caps having been capped at every age group from u-16 upwards.
With van Dijk about to head for England, Simunovic will form a new look central defensive partnership with Dedryck Boyata and is pencilled in to make his Celtic debut at Aberdeen a week on Saturday.
With Tyler Blackett joining Saidy Janko and Boyata Deila is close to having a completely reshaped defence from the one that he inherited from Neil Lennon.
Speaking yesterday about the loan deal for Blackett the Celtic boss said: “Tyler will bring quality. He’s a good player, a young player and has experience playing for Manchester United. He really wanted to come and play for Celtic and he’ll be a good signing.
“He can play centre-back and left-back so we’ll see what his best position will be in September.”
Celtic are also in talks with Inverness Caley Thistle to sign Ryan Christie.