FRENCH SOURCES may well have spoken to a redtop about the ongoing contract negotiations between Celtic and Paris Saint Germain over the transfer of the striker to the Scottish double treble winners.
There’s plenty of drama in the story – the price is now £10million – the club is facing an end of May deadline before the player is sold at auction to the highest bidder. A hint of the old biscuit tin could be implied too, maybe Celtic will find a way to get out of the deal as the price is just too high.
Well for a start, who are these French sources? Perhaps a journalist in Paris and if PSG are anything like Celtic then these guys would be the last to know.
Then let’s look at what we do know.
1. Celtic signed the player last season on a season long loan deal which included an option to buy at the end of this season.
2. The widely reported agreed in advance transfer fee was £7million but Brendan Rodgers later denied that was the figure and stated quite clearly that it was much lower than that.
3. The player will have a BIG say in where he will play his football. Just like Charly Musonda didn’t want to stay at Celtic next season as Brendan Rodgers couldn’t promise him enough starts (due to the form of Callum McGregor), Odsonne Edouard does want to play for Celtic. He has said so.
4. Then a deal has to be done between the player and his representatives and the club. Brendan Rodgers met with them on Sunday ahead of the Broony testimonial.
5. Peter Lawwell has been to Paris and has been in discussions with PSG about taking up the option.
Those are the facts.
Have you got one of these for the summer yet?
A speculative point can be listed too.
6. The transfer fee is in perhaps the most accurate speculation, going to be £4.5million plus add ons and a sell-on clause, let’s assume at 10%. The add ons usually relate to Champions League progress during the period of the contract and this incidentally was something that will be in most of these contracts – Aston Villa for instance would be receiving payments from the Scotty Sinclair transfer to Celtic as we have made it through to the Group Stages.
Summary
No goalposts have been moved on the Odsonne Edouard transfer front – all parties are in the process of sorting out the transfer and it should be concluded shortly, all going well.
Beautiful Sunday should be celebrated all summer long…
Listen to “John Paul Taylor with A Celtic State of Mind (Part 2/3)” on Spreaker.
