CELTIC knocked back a significant bid for Dedryck Boyata in the summer under the orders of Brendan Rodgers who believed Celtic could not afford to lose him.
Nearly three months on from that decision the Celtic manager’s assessment appeared to be bang on the money with Boyata being one of Celtic’s most consistent and imposing performers.
Boyata wanted out and made no secret about it, his agent doing everything possible to get him a big money move.
Fulham failed in a late £7million bid, and the defender swallowed his pride and got on with the task at hand.
However, we’re only two months away from the January window where all this will start again and this time can Celtic afford not to sell him?
Having just started against Holland in an international friendly, Belgium boss Roberto Martinez perhaps upped the defender’s profile and price tag by suggesting he is the future of the Belgian national team and the natural replacement to Vincent Kompany.
With interest in him already from the summer, there is going to be club’s coming in for his services in January.
But have Celtic missed the boat on getting a fee for Dedryck?
The Belgium international can sign a pre-contract deal with any club come January 1st, leaving Celtic with no return on their modest investment from Manchester City four years ago.
It’s rather bizarre, there was a point in time when Celtic fans would have driven Boyata to where he would like to go, but now we’re fretting over getting a fee from a number of club’s who want the defender’s services.
The club also has the task of finding a replacement for him, so if a reasonable bid does come in during the January window, we are in a position to take it.
Right now, money for the player is up in the air. If Boyata signs for another club, he becomes pretty useless to Celtic even if he does stick around for the remainder of his contract.
The Celtic manager will try and paint a scenario where this will be ok but it’s not ideal by any stretch of the imagination.
Celtic missing out on the Champions League money cannot be underestimated and while we have clawed back a lot of that with the Dembele fee – there is still a large hole in what the club would have earned.
Swings and round-a-bouts. But still time to replace some of the unreplacibles with younger unreplacibles. Or come February the squad will be a might thin.
Don’t agree that there is a major hole in our finances due to not being in the Champions League. The board is always telling us that the plan is to be there only three out of five years, so all budgeted for..!