Mika Baur was in pre-season action yesterday- for SC Paderborn.
The midfielder has been at the centre of transfer attention since Fabrizio Romano tweeted that personal terms have been agreed with Celtic.
That was on Tuesday but on Saturday afternoon the midfielder played the first half in a 2-0 defeat from FC Magdeburg.
Later in the week there were claims that Celtic and Paderborn were 300,000 euros away from a deal.
Paderborn start their Bundesliga campaign away to Mainz on August 29- just as the transfer window closes.
The Paderborn website reported:
Our SCP07 lost their friendly match on Saturday at their home TNLZ against second-division side 1. FC Magdeburg 0-2 (0-1). The match consisted of two 45-minute halves. It was played behind closed doors, and following discussions between the two clubs, there was no live stream. Â
Data & Figures
SC Paderborn 07 (1st half): Noll – Lippmann, Hansen, Hoffmeier, Obermair – Baack – Baur, Batista Meier – Michel, Tigges, MillgrammÂ
SC Paderborn 07 (2nd half): Schubert – Müller, ter Horst, Scheller, Mohr – Castaneda – Duric, Klaas – Okpala, Marino, EickelÂ
There are various interpretations of Baur playing in Saturday’s friendly.
PADERBORN FACE THE BAUR DILEMMA
He needs to get playing time whether he will be with Paderborn, Celtic or someone else in the new season.
In midweek Celtic fans were alerted when Kasper Hogh was left on the bench for Bodo Glimt’s 3-0 home win over HamKam.
Despite the denials of Kjel Knutsen it seems almost certain that Hogh has played his last match for Bodo.
A number of sources are claiming that an £11m deal has been agreed for the striker with Martin O’Neill discussing Hogh after Celtic drew with AC Milan.
The Celtic boss was more evasive when asked about where negotiations were with Baur.
Celtic’s midfield remains intact but after the sale of Daizen Maeda to Ipswich other departures are expected.
Celtic rejected three bids for Arne Engels from Nottingham Forest in January, that issue is almost certain to be revised during the current window.
Ben Nygren, Reo Hatate and Paulo Bernardo have all been subjected to transfer speculation with Hatate and Bernardo dropping out of the first team squad at the end of last season.
With eight days to go until the SPFL gets underway transfer activity at Celtic is expected to increase in the coming days.
As has happened previously much of Celtic’s transfer business may be dependent on qualification for the Champions Legue.
That won’t be decided until the last week in August. The transfer window closes on September 3.
This waiting for qualification to the CL is backwards thinking. Yeah we won’t have the same prize pot if we don’t qualify but if we buy players to compete in CL it increases the chances of qualifying, it would also mean if we did fail we have a shot at a long run in the EL potentially improving our coefficient. We should be looking at the possibility of winning the EL, there hasn’t been a team in it since the CL expansion that we should fear (if we are properly prepared). We have a massive cash reserve that would cushion a failure to qualify and still not put us in any trouble plus any player sales profit. I’m not suggesting we spend stupid amounts or reckless either but with an elite manager, they should be trusted to spend and build around their system at the right time not based on a bloody IF.