POPPED out for around 81 minutes and came back to discover that Marvin Compper has left Celtic to join German side MSV Duisburg, presumably on a free transfer. And of course 81 minutes was the exact total of the highly paid German’s playing career at Celtic – 81 minutes against Morton in the Scottish Cup in March 2018.
Duisburg confirmed the signing on the club’s official website this afternoon. Duisburg sports director Ivo Grlic said: “With him, we got exactly the experienced centre-back that I really wanted.
“He is the leading player who perfectly complements our young team with his qualities. I talked to him often over a long period of time, and my patience and stubbornness paid off in the end.”
God luck with this one Ivo!
Compper arrived at Celtic from RB Leipzig in the January 2018 transfer window with Celtic paying just over £1million for the experienced defender. He travelled out to join The Celtic squad at the winter training base in Dubai and promptly picked up an injury.
That kept him out of action until that afternoon in March when not too many Celtic fans were there to see Celtic beat Morton. Compper did okay – nothing wrong but nothing special either – before tiring and being replaced in the closing stages.
The Celtic Star actually broke the story that Compper was starting that day, we said he’d be making his first appearance against Morton but certainly never expected it to be his last.
The only other time we saw him at Celtic Park was on Trophy Day in May after the win against Hearts on the last day of the league campaign. Compper walked about Celtic Park, holding the trophy with the biggest brass neck imaginable. The look on Ryan Christie’s face said it all.
Compper was a Brendan Rodgers / Lee Congerton signing for Celtic and the German has been one of the highest paid players at the club over the past 18 months. Despite the lucrative contract he was given, Celtic failed to do proper due diligence on the player, although Rodgers seemed to be impressed that he ate the same kind of breakfast cereal. When Celtic were short of central defenders, the young and inexperienced Jack Hendry had to step up and play – probably to his own detriment – while Compper was nowhere to be seem.
Lacking self awareness, Rodgers never seemed to have much of an issue with this. Compper is gone and good riddance, he’s made a small fortune from Celtic and must go down as one of the worst signings that the club has ever made.
We can only hope that Duisburg get better value for money out of Martin Compper than Celtic did. It would not be hard.
