Christoph Berra believes that signing Aaron Hickey for £3.5m makes perfect sense for Celtic.
Three years ago the 16-year-old left the Celtic Academy for Tynecastle where he ended his first season alongside Berra in the first team.
Celtic seem to have spent almost two years trying to re-sign Hickey who left Hearts for Bologna for around £1m during the 2020 summer transfer window.
The fee now seems to have escalated to around £3.5m which is slightly more than Celtic paid Rapid Vienna for Boli Bolingoli in 2019.
Discussing Hickey, Berra told The Sun:
Aaron’s a Celtic supporter, he’s from Glasgow and Celtic were his first club. So, it’s not a surprise if they’re looking to take him back. I’ve seen talk of a fee in the region of £3.5m and that probably won’t all be paid up front.
You’re looking at basically less than £1m for every year of say a four-year contract and I think for Aaron’s age and potential — especially when you consider some of the fees elsewhere for players that young — it would appear good business.
I’m pretty confident Aaron would be a quality player for them. Celtic will know him well enough as it is because he came through their academy system.
Their transfer model has been proved for long enough — selling players on for big profits. Aaron could go back there, do really well and then get another big move.
Then again, he might return and spend the next ten years of his career with Celtic and be a mainstay — which would be great for them.
Greg Taylor rejoined the Celtic squad yesterday as they travelled to Wales but is unlikely to play in any of the three friendless after his extended Scotland duty.
That opens the door for a Celtic return for Bolingoli- 11 months after his trip to Spain resulted in two matches being postponed ahead of the fateful Champions League qualifier against Ferencvaros.