Bristol City’s 22 year old striker Antoine Semenyo is a target for Celtic and has been scouted by Hoops scout Craig Strachan in City’s Championship clash with Reading on Wednesday night, that’s according to bristolworld.com, who claim Scottish sources have advised of Celtic’s interest in the player who recently attracted interest from Nottingham Forest in the January transfer window.
‘BristolWorld understands that Scottish giants Celtic are the latest to check on the powerful striker. According to sources north of the border, senior scout Craig Strachan was watching Wednesday night’s game against Reading.
Craig is the son of former Celtic manager Gordan Strachan and he covers England and European games for the Bhoys. And Strachan junior will not have been disappointed with what he saw in the 2-1 win over the Royals, as Semenyo tapped in from a few yards out after good work by Andi Weimann and Cameron Pring had led to the chance for City to open the scoring.’
Semenyo has only recently been converted to a centre forward having played predominately as a left and right sided attacker previously, however the change in position has brought about a huge upturn in form. Semenyo was yesterday awarded the Championship player of the month award after three goals and three assists during January, and now has five goals and six assists from eleven starts as a striker this season. Watch him in action HERE.
Bristol City are apparently looking for a large fee for the player, however with only 18 months left on a contract that expires in June 2023, Celtic may be convinced the £15m fee the Robins are looking for is somewhat ambitious, particularly as the player so far has been stalling on a new contract according to City boss Nigel Pearson.
“It [the contract]never just looks after itself. Of course, we want to retain his services for as long as we can,” he explained.
“He’s currently got a year-and-a-half left with a year’s option in our favour so we’ve got him for two-and-a-half years to at least persuade him to stay, whether that materialises or not I can’t give you a definitive answer.
“But we have time to work on those possibilities but I can’t speak for other people’s intentions and it will take a lot of money to get him out of the building.”
Whether Celtic’s interest in Antoine Semenyo goes beyond a scouting report from Craig Strachan remains to be seen, but at 22 years old, with a contract running down, and impressive goalscoring form to boot, Semenyo ticks a lot of boxes when it comes to the profile of player the club look to target, the fact Semenyo is positionally versatile and appears on an upward career trajectory too would certainly fit the bill for Celtic.
With the transfer window closed and no deal able to be concluded until the summer, Celtic appear to also have the time to scout Semenyo more extensively over the remainder of the Championship season, and if no contract is signed by the striker, the value of the player will certainly reduce by the summer when there will only be a year remaining on his contract. This might be one to keep an eye on.
Niall J
