There seems to be a little bit of history repeating today, as Celtic and KV Oostende agreed a loan deal for Osaze Urhoghide to spend the rest of the season at the Belgian Pro-League club.
Celtic of course did some business with the Belgian club last season, as Jack Hendry performed well and improved enough that KV Oostende not only persuaded Hendry to make the move by way of an option to buy, they then flipped the player to Club Brugge for an instant profit and left Celtic looking like they may have underestimated the Hendry’s value.
Now when announcing the signing of Urhoghide, and according to Football Scotland, Club president Gauthier Ganaye has confirmed the Belgian club negotiated strongly for an option to buy to be included in this particular deal too.
“We have been following Osaze for quite some time so we are very satisfied with his arrival.
“Moreover, we absolutely wanted to negotiate a purchase option because we firmly believe in his talent.
“We try to avoid renting without a purchase option in our philosophy and I am therefore happy with the deal we have obtained. Of course, comparisons will now be made with Jack Hendry, but Osaze is a lot younger than Jack and still has a lot of progress margin.
“At KVO we are known for making young players better and we want to do the same with him now. I’m already looking forward to seeing him make his first minutes here.”
This season I have far more confidence that Celtic know what they are doing in the transfer market, however, Urhoghide certainly looked a talent in the Europa League dead rubber with Real Betis, and as such an option to buy being included sounds a dangerous game to be playing for a player Ange Postecoglou seemed determined to reject permanent offers for, especially considering we’ve been on the losing end of a KV Oostende deal before.
I guess on this one we’ll simply have to see how this loan deal pans out before we know if Osaze Urhoghide’s long term future lies with Celtic, or much like Jack Hendry, in Belgium.
Niall J
