David Friel has attempted to untangle the transfer reports surrounding Fares Ghedjemis.
Twice over the last week the Frosinone has been heavily linked with moves to Glasgow.
This morning he remains a player with the club promoted to Serie A at the end of last season.
Over the last year Celtic have sold Nicolas Kuhn and Daizen Maeda without any direct replacements coming in.
Against Dundee on Monday night Camilo Duran was played on the right wing without making any real impact.
Yang Hyun-jun and Sebastian Tounekti had spells on the left flank without nailing down a case for a permanent place.
Being so short on wide options has led Celtic onto the trail of Ghedjemis. Firstly in January then again last Friday.
Martin O’Neill rarely fuels transfer speculation but did admit to having a strong interest in the Algerian international winger.
TUG OF WAR OVER GHEDJEMIS
On Tuesday separate reports surfaced on renewed interest from the two Glasgow clubs- pushing the asking price up and up.
Speaking on The Sun podcast Friel delivered a timeline on what is going on with the Frosinone winger:
3 minutes 40 seconds
This has been messing with my head since Friday. Again I’ll take you back to Friday, Friday was a busy day.
So obviously it came out that Rangers had an interest in him that that is 100% Rangers did have or do have an interest in Ghedjemis.
It then emerged that, well Celtic were back in for him as well. Now, we actually put Martin O’Neill on the spot, we said to him this is what’s been said and he confirmed Celtic have a very strong interest.
Now I think we are talking here on Tuesday morning there was fresh reports about Rangers having a bid, lodging a new bid for him.
As far as we’re aware and we can only go in what we’ve been told, from sources and all that sort of stuff, that’s not the case.
Now as I said, I don’t think it’s any secret that in this search for wingers that Ghedjemis’ name has popped up on the Rangers list, it has popped up in the Celtic list.
But we’re in this kind of intriguing situation where both clubs are chasing the same type of of winger.
They have until midnight on August 13 to register their squad for the Champions League Play Off against LASK.
That would allow any new signing to be involved against Dundee United on August 15 in the League Cup.
Two changes can be made before 11pm on August 18 but making a debut in such a vital match is far from ideal.
Celtic fans are anxiously scanning social media for signs of transfer activity.
Martin O’Neill has played it all very low key throughout the transfer windows.
There has been no sign or urgency or concern about the pace of transfer developments.
Last night Celtic sent midfielder Paulo Bernardo on to to Gornik Zabrze.
The fairytale signings phase has nearly passed
Next phase .. Loans , misfits and prospects
And ‘projects’ Harold…
Remember Wee Lenny sayin “Fuck Projects” when he took over from ‘We take it on the chin and move on’ !