There is an agreement- A Bola reveals Celtic’s Bernardo breakthrough

Celtic and Benfica seem to be finally getting close to an agreement on the transfer of Paulo Bernardo.

Last weekend the deal seemed to be moving closer, on Tuesday Sky Sports bundled the midfielder in as being close to agreement alongside Viljami Sinisalo but while the keeper flew to Washington with a five year contract signed Bernardo has continued to train with Benfica.

Celtic have gone on to sign Kasper Schmeichel but 15 days before the SPFL season starts no outfield players have been added to the squad with Scottish Cup heroes Adam Idah and Bernardo back at their parent clubs.

Negotiations with both clubs are said to be continuing, it appears that a deal is closer for the Benfica midfielder as A Bola reports:

There is an agreement between clubs and the midfielder discusses salary with the Scots; Benfica keeps 30 percent of the transfer fee.

Paulo Bernardo was one of the few players who did not play in the first two friendlies of the pre-season, as he was discussing the details of the transfer (contract years and salary) with Celtic. Everything is agreed between the clubs, and Benfica will receive a fee of less than €4 million for the midfielder, but will reserve 30 percent of his transfer fee.

Paulo Bernardo, 22, was loaned to Celtic last season, and made 33 appearances (15 as a starter), scoring four goals and providing three assists. He trained at Seixal this week, but is not expected to travel with the team, which plays Almería in Thonon-les-Bains on Sunday.

After weeks of talks on a fee and sell on issues it would be a shock if Celtic had still to consider Bernardo’s salary expectations.

If a deal is concluded Bernardo is likely to fly out to rejoin Celtic in the USA but it is unlikely that he’ll be ready to get involved against Manchester City on July 23 or Chelsea four days later.

The 22-year-old won’t take long to adapt to training with his ‘new’ team-mates but across football players and managers stress the importance of pre-season training with new signings involved in pre-season fixtures.

Celtic start their SPFL campaign on August 4 at home to Kilmarnock.