CELTIC’S transfer business tends to remain private and confidential as far as the club is concerned although we do occasionally get a glimpse of what has been happening behind the scenes when other parties to deals that happened or fell though for any one of hundreds of reasons.
Yesterday there was a story on a click-bait site claiming to have had some information from Celtic that indicates that the £3m summer signing, Boli Bolingoli, is now surplus to requirements and will be moved on in the summer if at all possible.
Why would anyone from Celtic decide to contact a random click-bait site to announce this news because it could only have the effect of reducing the chances of recovering much of the fee paid to Rapid Vienna.
The idea that Bolingoli is out of favour and could be sold is hardly surprising news. He seems to have carried the can for the defeat against the Rangers last December and other than an outing in the Scottish Cup win against Clyde that’s been the only time we’ve seen him since.
Greg Taylor and Jonny Hayes – who is out of contract at the end of this season – both appear to be further up the pecking order as far as Neil Lennon’s team selections are concerned so Bolingoli has plenty to do to get back in the team. It’s not impossible but you would have to think that cutting their losses on him is very much a consideration for the club this summer. But no-one from Celtic will have spoken to a click-bait site, you can be sure of that.
Getting information from Celtic on these matters isn’t easy. Information tends to break when other parties in the transfer discussions speak to the media for their own ends, maybe trying to talk up a player, drum up interest (see Morelos stories over the past few years) and stuff like that.
Celtic never say anything to the press unless it suits them for a very specific purpose. Sometimes the odd snippet is available and we’ve had a decent record on this on The Celtic Star. But there is NO WAY that anyone from Celtic is talking to these click bait sites. Sometimes we rely on carefully constructed hints, that point us in the right direction, or we’ll get a clear text reply with a few words that explain the club’s position for us to do as we will, the most recent example of that is of course the club letting it be known to The Celtic Star that null and void was not going to happen, as far as Celtic believe.
On Bolingoli it’s easy to join up the pieces on this story. Bayo’s wife had a baby the day Celtic played down at Kilmarnock a month or so ago. Yet he made sure he was there and was on the bench. That’s a commitment to the cause that is appreciated, these who don’t show it aren’t in the team, and that applies to a couple of players, one who was in the news yesterday and maybe also Bolingoli too.
Neil Lennon doesn’t tolerate it.
In January Celtic were linked with the Brazilian defender Fabricio Bruno but the story developed in a rather bizarre way with the 24 year old ending up taking his own club to court. Celtic seemed to exit the situation when all that kicked off, with many Celtic fans frankly left somewhat relieved after our previous experience of signing Brazilian defenders. Rafael Scheidt still cast a shadow over Celtic’s player recruitment activity.
Today Fabricio Bruno has opened up about the transfer discussions and what happened around it that resulted in the deal falling through. And it’s nice to know that the player isn’t blaming Celtic.
Here’s what he says happened, as reported by Scottish Sun. Neil Lennon wanted to sign him and tried to do a deal with Cruzeiro, after they were relegated for the first time in their history. But the club didn’t want to talk to Celtic about a deal and when the move collapsed, Bruno took his club to court over unpaid wages and image rights.
“I don’t regret what I did with Cruzeiro. I was a professional and had to think about my family. There was no proposal from them. The only way out was to go to court. Cruzeiro owed me four months in wages and ten months of image rights.
“It all started when Celtic came to talk to me and I went to Cruzeiro together with my representative. But Cruzeiro refused to negotiate with them. It was a difficult situation and I had to look at the personal side of it.
“Some fans called me ungrateful and mercenary, but it was the other way around. I tried to get the club some money with this transfer. I tried to tell to them to negotiate with Celtic, but they would not. I had no choice, but to take Cruzeiro to court.
“Celtic came back for me, but they had to pull out because I wouldn’t get a decision from the court until 6 February and that was too late for them. It was very unfortunate for them.
“I won the case, but I just wanted to get on with my life and my career.”
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