Andrew Gutman has been involved in a highly complex transfer which casts doubt over his status as a Celtic player.
The defender played during Celtic’s pre-season tour of Austria and Switzerland but was apparently on loan to Charlotte Independence at the time.
After returning to the USA Gutman never made another appearance with the official MLS website announcing that Cincinnati had acquired his rights from Chicago Fire!
MLS Soccer website explains:
Cincinnati made the signing possible earlier in the week when they acquired Gutman’s rights from the Chicago Fire (along with a third round pick in the 2020 SuperDraft) in exchange for $50,000 in 2019 General Allocation Money (GAM), plus up to an additional $150,000 in GAM if he was added to the roster and meets certain performance incentives. Chicago will also receive a percentage of any future fee should Cincinnati transfer or loan Gutman outside MLS.
Celtic announced the signing of Gutman at the end of the January transfer window with no fanfare as he returned to the USA with the clear suggestion that he was unable to secure a work permit from the SFA.
At that time Celtic had Kieran Tierney, Emilio Izaguirre, Calvin Miller and Johnny Hayes competing for the left-back position.
With Celtic paying £3m for Boli Bolingoli it’s difficult to see how Gutman could get a work permit or stand a chance of getting into the Celtic side by playing for the team in bottom place in the Eastern Conference of the MSL.
He’s is still our player. It MLS system means everyone in it is registered centrally then allocated to a club based on options. Chicago has gutmans. Until this deal…
— Specialbhoy (@specialbhoy) August 4, 2019
