Celtic transfers: Possible 'wow' signing, another major windfall incoming, quadruple treble hero to exit

Celtic are ramping up their transfer business ahead of Brendan Rodgers’ first season back at the helm ...

Windfall incoming

Celtic have already banked £25m from the sale of Jota to Al-Ittihad - and they could be set for another major windfall but this time involving the transfer of a former player with Arsenal reportedly entering the race to sign Jeremie Frimpong from Bayer Leverkusen. Celtic sold the Dutch right-back to the German giants back in January 2021 for £11m and his form in the Bundesliga has attracted interest from the likes of Manchester United and Real Madrid. However, a report in leading German newspaper Bild claims that Mikel Arteta is prepared to make the first move for the 22-year-old with a £35m bid on the cards. Celtic inserted a significant sell-on clause into the Frimpong deal so will be a due a chunk of any transfer fee, with suggestions the percentage could be as high as 25 per cent on any profit Leverkusen make.

Hazard heading out

More arrivals and departures are expected at Celtic in the summer transfer window. (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group)

Celtic goalkeeper Conor Hazard is reportedly closing in on a six-figure move to Plymouth Argyle with future add-ons. Hazard has spent most of his Parkhead career out on loan including spells at Falkirk, Partick, Dundee (twice) and also in Finland last year where helped HJK Helnsinki win the league title.

He had a brief spell as Celtic number one during Neil Lennon's second spell in charge and was the hero in the delayed Scottish Cup final shoot-out win over Hearts in 2020, saving the penalty which sealed a historic quadruple treble for Celtic.

The Northern Ireland international is said to be keen on the move to the newly-promoted English Championship side in order to secure a chance of regular first-team football. The 25-year-old has been with Celtic for almost a decade but is behind Joe Hart, Scott Bain and Benjamin Siegrist in the Parkhead pecking order.

Possible 'wow' signing

Brendan Rodgers has been told that a move for £15m rated Fabian Reider would represent a 'wow' signing. Celtic would need to break their previous transfer record of £9m spent on Odsonne Edouard from PSG in 2018 to land the 21-year-old playmaker from Young Boys in Switzerland.

Reider has attracted interest from clubs across Europe and represented the Swiss at the World Cup in Qatar last year. Falkirk midfielder Stephen McGinn, formerly of St Mirren, Dundee and Hibs, told Go Radio's Football Show that such a big-money move would take Celtic's recruitment to the "next level".

"With all the talk of Brendan Rodgers and taking them to the next level in Europe it's probably the first signing that suggests that," he said. "Some of the players that have been suggested and have been signed so far are the type of signings Celtic have been making in the last five or six years.

"I think Reider is one of those next level signings. I think as far back as 25 years the signing limit for Celtic has been around that £5-£6million mark.

"It would take upwards of £14-£15million to sign Reider and it's the 'wow' signing that shows that it's not a fantasy about taking Celtic to the next level and the board saying 'we have the money here so to make that progression we are not just going to sign the projects, we are going to sign the next level projects'.

"It's the first player of this kind of new vision of taking Celtic to the next level."

Next Korea move

Yang Hyun-jun is edging closer to a move to Celtic with the Daily Record reporting that a £2.1million fee has been agreed with Gangwon for the 21-year-old South Korean forward.

Yang has been involved in a battle with his club - who are fighting relegation from the K-League and want to keep him until the end of their season in November - and even offered to give up his salary to make the switch happen this summer.

But, according to the report, the two parties have now reached an amicable agreement with Hyun-jun set to complete his transfer to the Scottish champions in the current window.

Quotes attritibuted to Gangwon CEO Kim Byung-ji read: “I have met with Yang. I still believe in the skills he has. However, we have to consider the impact of the current situation on the club as well as on the player himself. This is a positive message."

Hyun-jun would join fellow countryman Hyeon-Gyu Oh at Celtic, who joined from Suwon Bluewings in January, and become the club’s third summer signing on the back of the arrivals of Odin Thiago Holm and Marco Tilio.