Celtic are still keeping tabs on Panathianaikos forward, Fotis Ioannidis. The club are actively searching for a new front man ahead of this current season coming to an end and manager Brendan Rodgers is desperately looking to add more quality to the squad after being denied it for so long.
The Irishman came back to Celtic Park last summer when Ange Postecoglou decided to jump ship and join the English Premier League with Tottenham Hotspur, leaving us with a massive amount of work to do to fill that void. Rodgers was available after having been sacked by Leicester City, following a string of poor results which saw them languishing at the foot of the table.
Dermot Desmond wanted Rodgers back and his countrymen duly obliged after some persuading and came on board for a second spell to try and help progress what Ange Postecoglou had built. The Treble-winning side didn’t need much doing to it, but in typical Celtic fashion, the money men at Parkhead decided to sell top talent and not replace it with like-for-like, leaving Rodgers and the supporters scratching their heads’.
That’s by-the-by now and adequate reinforcements simply have to be brought in this time when the football stops this year. The former Liverpool boss will be scouring the marketplace for that extra bit of quality that can elevate the team both at home and abroad. Adam Idah was drafted in during the winter transfer window to help the struggling Kyogo Furuhashi, as the Carnlough man just can’t seem to trust Oh Hyeon-gyu.
However, there’s no denying a higher calibre of player is needed at the top end of the pitch to aid Kyogo and even challenge him for that jersey. According to Calciomercatto, the Bhoys are still on the hunt for Ionnidis amongst several other European sides. Lazio view him as a successor to the prolific Ciro Immobile, whom Celtic know all about; having had to watch him put us to the sword in this year’s UEFA Champions League group stages in Rome.
Sevilla, West Ham United, and theRangers intrepid conquerors in the Europa League, Eintracht Frankfurt, are all said to be chasing the Greek, who’s had an undeniably impressive campaign for Greek giants this season. With 21 goals and 7 assists in 38 games so far, it’s not hard to see why he is garnering interest from near and far for his services. Although the price may be considerably higher than Celtic would be currently willing to play for any one player. As it stands, the fee being mooted is around £12 million which could be a stretch for the Celtic moneymen.
Paul Gillespie
