The Daily Record has reported that Celtic only paid a fee f £1.8m to sign David Turnbull from Motherwell.
When the deal was completed in August a fee of around £3m was widely reported which was in line with the fee agreed in June 2019 between the two clubs.
Turnbull’s medical issue was well documented but after a handful of comeback matches Celtic returned to the scene to sign the midfielder.
Publishers can sometimes be lazy with transfer fees but in this instance the Daily Record makes a point of stating that Celtic saved almost £1.5m on the quoted fee when discussing the former Motherwell midfielder.
Fans got the sense when Turnbull’s proposed move to Parkhead collapsed after a medical last summer that we hadn’t heard the end of it yet. Truthfully, the deal turned into a bit of a saga even before that nightmare scan.
The ‘if not, we move on’ statement from the Hoops was hardly an edifying episode. But sure enough, Lennon returned to Motherwell’s rising star one year on. And things went relatively smoothly in 2020, which can be a rarity in the modern game.
Turnbull arrived for £1.8m, far less than his original £3.25m quoted in 2019. And he’s already looked the part with a second-half cameo against Hibs staking his first-team claim.
Perennial playmaker Callum McGregor and skipper Scott Brown are going to prove hard to budge in Celtic’s engine room but he’s still only 21 and he has all the skills to become a key man.
Motherwell will almost certainly have add-ons inserted in the deal, if Turnbull progresses as expected he could take the well-worn path to Southampton or elsewhere in England.
After impressing as a substitute in the 3-0 win over Motherwell he was less effective in the win over St Johnstone but he did come into a side that was flat on the back of a European away trip.