Celtic are considering selling summer signing Gustaf Lagerbielke, according to Daily Mail’s Stephen McGowan. The respected journalist has been a reliable source of Celtic dealings over the years with sources close to the club.
Now, in a Friday evening update, McGowan said in Mail Online that the Swedish defender could be sold in January as the Scottish Champions look to streamline the squad.
The centre-back has played eight times since arriving from Elfsborg, where he was awarded Defender of the Year in the Allsvenskan. However, Lagerbielke dropped out of the first team picture after his sending off in Rotterdam.
Nat Phillips was used as the third defender behind Cameron Carter-Vickers and Liam Scales. However, with Carter-Vickers out and a shaky display from the Liverpool loanee at Rugby Park, Rodgers put Stephen Welsh in ahead of Lagerbielke.
Welsh was replaced late in the second half by Lagerbielke, who made the most of his appearance as he scored a 90th minute winner as Celtic won their first home game in the UEFA Champions League for ten years. Although, in the aftermath of the win, the manager’s thoughts on the player do not appear to have changed.
You would imagine that Yuki Kobayashi and Nat Phillips would be set to leave the club in the January window with Kobayashi returning to the J-League on loan and Phillips’ deal expiring. It will be interesting to see what happens with Lagerbielke as it appears that Rodgers wants CCV, Scales, Nawrocki and Welsh to compete for the centre back roles.
Morning Gossip: Overnight Stephen McGowan from the Daily Mail and usually on the nose for transfer business followed up from John Kennedys press conference and made the point that we are considering selling summer signing Gustaf Lagerbielke. Yuki will be a cert to also go HH pic.twitter.com/x4W9cnxgJd
— Celtic Gossip (@CelticGossip) December 16, 2023
It’s a no-brainer! He isn’t good enough. He was a poor signing.
I can’t believe what we paid for him!
The way our central defenders pick up injuries and philips isn’t going to be there ,ccv misses more games than he plays now i honestly don’t think we can sell him until the summer, do we want Welsh and scales as our regular pairing? Probably not.