According to reports stateside, Celtic have stepped up their interest in Philadelphia Union centre-back Mark McKenzie.
The name will be familiar to supporters who followed the transfer window closely in January and the summer. The defender’s name kept popping up throughout both windows, but never came to anything at the time.
Now Sports Illustrated’s Kristian Dyer confirmed on social media the Scottish Champions did make a recent bid for the 21-year-old.
A bid of $3m dollars [Roughly £2.2m] was on the table but Philadelphia rebuffed Celtic’s advances — even with add-ons which would’ve taken the price to over £3m.
Per source, hearing that Celtic most recently made a bid for the Union's Mark McKenzie in October at $3 million that could bump to $4 million with incentives. #DOOP turned the deal down. #USMNT
— Kristian Dyer (@KristianRDyer) November 27, 2020
It’s unclear how recent the bid was but if Celtic have been making moves ahead of January to try and shore up their leaky defence, it would be encouraging.
McKenzie has been capped once, so far, for his country which came in February 2020 before lockdown.
The Bronx born defender seems destined to leave the US at some point over the next 12 months — hopefully Celtic are in the conversation when the time comes.
Mark is a very talented young defender and fits into Celtic’s transfer philosophy perfectly.
Go get him we need that type of player…