SOUTHAMPTON have met Celtic’s valuation of Stuart Armstrong and the player’s agent is now free to continue his discussions with the Saints on his client’s personal terms.
That is not expected to be a problem, and the player should be away to the Premier League side in the next few days.
Celtic agreed a one year contract extension with the player last summer after much speculation that he was heading to the Premier League then. It has always been the midfielder’s target to play down south and he always regarded Celtic as a stepping stone in that regard.
Armstrong’s current contract extension saw his pay packet bulge but given the lower starting position – he arrived from Dundee United – even his current salary made him only a middle bracket earner within the Celtic squad.
Armstrong will now significantly increase his salary in the richest league in the world as he swaps top of the league football, with the added advantage of the Champions League, for a relegation dog fight with a side that finished 17th last season and only just avoided the drop.
Southampton have shopped very sensibly at Celtic on three previous occasions and got great service from the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Victor Wanyama and Fraser Forster. They are also around £50million ahead of the game in sell on fees.
Armstrong, who is now an established Scotland starter, is approaching the peak of his powers at 26 years of age. He had a wonderful season in the Invincible campaign but struggled for form and fitness last term, eventually having to undergo surgery in January to sort a troublesome groin problem.
He made a few starts towards the end of the season but was usually on the bench. He came on for the closing minutes of the Scottish Cup Final against Motherwell – the previous season he started and scored in the Final against Aberdeen.
Celtic will earn up to £10million from the transfer which will be made up of £7million up front and additional sums if the Saints avoid relegation and Armstrong reaches set appearance figures. There will also be a sell-on clause – Celtic recently benefited to the tune of £9.3million from the sell-on clause for Van Dijk’s move from Saints to Liverpool.
Celtic will now turn their attention to Hibernian midfielder John McGinn, who like Armstrong has a year left on his current contract. Hibs will sell rather than risk losing the player for nothing further down the line and as he is Celtic daft, the chance to join up with the 7 in a Row Champions is not something he is going to want to miss.
Neil Lennon will not stand in McGinn’s way should Celtic firm up on their interest and we’d expect movement sooner rather than later.
For Armstrong, he was well liked by the support, but ultimately he just didn’t buy into the Celtic family in the way others have. Brendan told us that it’s a business for some players. Armstrong moving on isn’t personal, for him it is just business. Money talks.
Anyway, good luck to him. Southampton are getting yet another excellent player, this time with his own song. And he’ll always have his Celtic medals to look back on when his career is over.
One more time…???? pic.twitter.com/vBbBH0CLdB
— carol o'connor ???? (@carolk23) June 22, 2018
Meanwhile this latest edition of The Celtic Star Podcast – A Celtic State of Mind has had numerous listeners reporting back that they’ve been in floods of tears listening to it. It is very special but be prepared for the emotion…Jinky is still magical it seems. Part 2 is out this evening and we’ll post it shortly.
