Celtic’s 2021 transfer bonanza reaches £50m from player sales

Well, it looks as if the club have now said au revoir to French Eddy on the final day of the transfer window, with Crystal Palace paying north of £16 million for Celtic’s star man.

It is a fair sum by Scottish standards for a player in his final contract, yet a fee Palace will soon be looking upon as a bargain as and when Odsonne Edouard settles down to focus entirely on his football again without the off-field uncertainty over his future impacting on his matchday focus.

For Celtic this is a substantial amount of money to hit the club’s accounts and will be particularly welcomed as Ange Postecoglou realises the size of the rebuild he’s been tasked with at the club.

Yet this isn’t the only fee Celtic have received or indeed a hefty weekly wage removed from the club’s salary bill, so as the window closes just how much have Celtic brought into the club in transfer fees since the turn of the year.

Well, first up there was Jeremie Frimpong and his move to Bayer Leverkusen. The deal to sell the former Man City project signed from the Citizens for a mere £300k was widely reported to be £11.5m but a hefty sell on fee to City left Celtic pocketing just north of £8m for the right back.

Next up came the sale of the century as Patryck Klimala headed out the door to Major League Soccer club New York Red Bulls. The fee attached for a player who made little or no impact at Celtic, or wasn’t given a real opportunity depending on your viewpoint, was £3.5million. Hatem Abd Elhamed also returned home to Israel after failing to settle in covid -hit Scotland, with the club recouping around £750k on the initial transfer fee paid.

Another disappointing signing for Celtic was then on the move as Belgian side Mechelen agreed a fee with Celtic to sign Maryan Shved – and his questionable attitude – on a permanent basis after a successful loan spell in the Jupiler League. The fee has generally been stated as unreported but it is believed Celtic recouped somewhere in the region of £900k for the Ukrainian.

Next up saw the man unveiled under the Disco lights at Celtic Park followed a similar route to the Belgian top flight as Maryan Shved, this time via Ligue2 in France. Vakouun Bayo had been expected to sign for Toulouse after an impressive loan spell saw the French club just fail in the play offs for promotion to Ligue1. That failure may have impacted on the available funds to secure the striker on a permanent basis as Gent stole in to conclude the deal for Bayo, for a fee of £1.4m.

And it was the Jupiler League again who came calling as Celtic offloaded Scottish International defender Jack Hendry to Oostende as a loan with an option to buy was concluded for a fee of £1.75m. A decent fee recouped on paper you’d say but given the improvement the player exhibited while performing well in the Belgian top flight you might well see Oostende flip Jack Hendry soon enough and make a substantial profit on a player who has interested clubs in England in the recent past.

The next player to leave the club was of course Kristoffer Ajer as Celtic’s prized defensive asset eventually moved to West London and joined EPL new boys Brentford, leaving long-term suitors Bayer Leverkusen’s nose somewhat out of joint. The fee for this one was initially reported to be £13.5m with a series of add-ons attached, however it has since been stated that particular figure may have been as much as £17.5million. Not a bad bit of financial business from Dom McKay that one, considering Ajer had made his feelings clear regarding his wish to leave the club and the fact he was in the final year of his contract.

Others of course have left the club as club legend Scott Brown headed north to Aberdeen on a free, Armstrong Oko-Flex headed for London’s East end and West Ham United and young goalkeeper Vincent Angelini, moved to the EPL as well and joined newly promoted Watford for a nominal fee.

The enigma that was Olivier Ntcham was eventually freed from his contract as Celtic simply chose to cut their losses, before a real defensive prospect in Leo Hjelde chose to join the Under-23 set up at Leeds United rather than stay for the final year of his deal with the Hoops.  A disappointing transfer that one given Celtic’s defensive lack of numbers and despite a transfer fee being involved the figure hasn’t actually been reported, yet if Celtic even received as much as £1m for the combined sales of Hjelde, Oko-Flex and Angelini they’d have been doing well.

And now it looks like we’ll be adding Odsonne Edouard and some £16m to the list of those who have chosen to head for challenges away from Celtic for the next chapters of their careers.

Even at a conservative estimate, and not including the re-assessed figure of Kris Ajer’s transfer fee to Brentford, or any fees recouped Hjelde, Oko-Flex and Angelini, Celtic have attracted transfer fees in the region of £45m since Jeremie Frimpong started a steady stream of players looking to ply their trade away from Celtic. It is possible if those other fees were included Celtic could have gained as much as £50m.

With the transfer window yet to close and with rumours abound – Ryan Christie is set to join Bournemouth with the transfer fee rumours ranging from £1m to £3m – and others may also be moving today,  so there may well be further fees recouped by midnight tonight. It will also be interesting to see just how much is ultimately reinvested in strengthening Ange Postecoglou’s rebuild on the back of the money banked. Very interesting indeed.

Niall J