Celtic announce defender deal

In just 71 words Celtic have announced the departure of Carl Starfelt with the defender off to Spain to play for Celta Vigo.

Since Saturday it has seemed like a matter of timing before the Swede moved on, the fourth signing from the pivotal 2021 summer transfer window to leave Celtic this year.

In January bids were accepted for Josip Juranovic and Giorgos Giakoumakis, at the end of June an offer came in for Jota from Al Ittihad that was simply too good to be turned down by any of the parties involved.

Late this morning the Celtic website announced:

After two full seasons with Celtic, Carl Starfelt has left the club to join La Liga side RC Celta.

The Swedish central defender joined the Hoops in July 2021 from Rubin Kazan and played 87 times for the Hoops, scoring three times.

He leaves having won five domestic honours during his time at Paradise, including last season’s historic Treble. Everyone at Celtic wishes Carl Starfelt every success in his future career. 

The arrival of Maik Nawrocki has cushioned the disruption of Starfelt leaving, breaking up his impressive partnership with Cameron Carter-Vickers that helped to deliver five domestic trophies out of six.

Beyond that pairing Ange Postecoglou struggled to find consistency of performances, especially when Carter-Vickers was missing.

Celtic have been strongly linked with Elfsborg defender Gustaf Lagerbielke but with three weeks left in the transfer window hoops supporters are looking for recruitment to be cranked up ahead of going into the group stage of the Champions League.