Gustaf Lagerbielke is reportedly on over £13k at Celtic. The 23-year-old was expected to leave the club in January to join Serie A side Lecce on a loan-to-buy deal before the Scottish Champions pulled the plug on the deal because of Cameron Carter-Vickers’ recurring hamstring injury.
As reported by The Sun, Lecce chief Pantaleo Corvino spoke about attempting to bring Lagerbielke into the club during the summer window before returning to attempt to take him to Italy in January before it hit the buffers. In discussing their failed pursuit, Corvino inadvertently revealed how much cash Lagerbielke receives on a weekly basis.
“We appreciated his desire to come to Lecce.
“This summer we were interested, but we couldn’t keep up with the exorbitant demands, so he went to Celtic for 4.5 million and 800 thousand euros in salary.
“We had (Marin) Pongracic and (Federico) Baschirotto. When he didn’t feel comfortable, he and his agent asked us to come to Lecce. It was his request.
“However, we had already assessed Pongracic, Baschirotto, (Ahmed) Touba and (Sebastian) Esposito as suitable at the beginning of January.”
Lagerbielke signed for Celtic after being recommended to the club by Carl Starfelt’s agent, who switched to La Liga to join Celta Vigo. The £3m switch was expected to be a replacement for his compatriot, with Maik Nawrocki also arriving in the summer.
However, the Swedish central defender has made just nine appearances as well as scoring one goal – the win against Feyenoord in the UCL. It is quite surprising that the club are continuing to pay him such a figure and he cannot get onto the bench.
Stephen Welsh and Nawrocki are ahead of Lagerbielke with CCV and Liam Scales is currently the preferred pairing for Rodgers. Hopefully, Lagerbielke will be afforded the opportunity to show that he can have a future at the club.
