You sell a Norwegian internationalist, replace him with one from Sweden and bank around £7m with the prospect of a further £3m to come.
To most businesses that seems like sound sense but that is a phrase rarely applied to transfer activity at Celtic.
In the summer of 2018 they sold Stuart Armstrong for £8m while bidding £1.5m up towards £2.5m only to see John McGinn leave Hibs for Aston Villa. Bidding for McGinn today would probably start at £40m.
Celtic are becoming a case study in how not to complete transfer business. Kris Ajer has provided good service, wants to leave and has a year left on his contract. The club gambled in this way with Dedryck Boyata with Ryan Christie in a similar situation.
There might be a few hundred thousand to shave off the fee for Carl Starfelt, perhaps on August 30 someone will offer £15m up front for Ajer but by that date Celtic could be out of the Champions League and trailing domestically. Transfer figures can be speculative but since they come from foreign media sources there is no need for spin in any particular direction.
Ange Postecoglou seems increasingly frustrated at the lack of transfer activity, before and after every pre-season friendly he will be asked about it.
In just over a week Celtic take on Midtjylland in a Champions League qualifier, the omens don’t look good. Producing another transfer market profit at the end of August won’t be much use if Postecoglou is still trying to put his jigsaw together in front of 46,000 frustrated Season Ticket holders.
Celtic rejecting £15M for Ajer & rescinding their bid £4.27M for Starfelt is A.
Keep a player that clearly doesn’t want to be here & retract interest on a Sweden international who was ready to join leaving £10.73M in the bank for other areas.
— Everything Celtic (@aboutceltic) July 10, 2021
Sources are @FabrizioRomano & @2sporten.
I’ve never claimed to know anything, I’m not ITK so stop getting your knickers in a twist.
— Everything Celtic (@aboutceltic) July 11, 2021
I agree but no matter what we should be signing new players to add competition and make us better
— Aaron (@aaron_millsip) July 10, 2021
If we are going to take the risk negotiating on Ajer then we should embrace that risk and go ahead and sign Starfelt.
Part of this is projecting a strong financial position to clubs looking at Christie and Eddy too.
— The Bunnet (@WeeFergus98) July 11, 2021
Agree. Keeping players that didn’t want to be there was one of our issues last season I believe. Fully believe Ajer has given enough to Celtic to earn a move. He will run his contract down and go for free if need be.
— Pallina Di Pasta ? (@weedoughball) July 11, 2021
