DEDRYCK BOYATA’S awful agent has re-surfaced to reveal that the Belgian defender will NOT sign a new contract at Celtic and plans leave in the summer.
Boyata apparently has numerous offers ‘on his desk’ at the moment and is likely to sign a pre-contract agreement in the next few weeks.
Jacques Lichtenstein speaking to Belgian media Het Laatste Nieuws was very clear on the situation and emphatically rules out an extended stay in Glasgow.
“A new contract? Not an option. We are not even talking.
“We have plenty of choice. We are looking at every proposition.”
Boyata teased the Celtic support with a message on his Instagram last month indicating that he had a contract in his desk ready for signing.
Whether Celtic will prefer to cash in on Boyata now rather than allow him to leave for free in the summer, remains to be seen. Fulham, in desperate need of defensive recruits, are reported to have an interest in trying to sign the Celtic defender again – they have a £9million bid rejected by Celtic in the summer, which led to the Belgian throwing his toys from the pram by refusing to play in the crucial match away to a very poor quality AEK Athens side, which Celtic lost 2-1 through some pretty shocking defensive errors.
Boyata came back into the team when the window closed and has had an excellent few months in the side, although he was very poor in his last outing at Ibrox on Saturday, which resulted in the Celtic legend John Hartson telling the player that on that kind of form few sides would be that interested in his services.
In all the transfer chat over the past few weeks there has been next to nothing said about recruitment in the central defensive area. With Botaya now almost certainly leaving and Filip Benkovic, who started at Ibrox with an injury picked up at Aberdeen, going back to his parent club, Leicester City in May, then surely this must become a priority area for Celtic to strengthen?
