Farès Ghedjemis has finally returned to league action for Frosinone after a summer in which Celtic’s long-running interest came to an end.
The winger featured for 33 minutes in Sunday’s 3-2 win over Venezia, his first Serie A appearance of the season.
It was the latest turn in a story Celtic supporters have been following since January.
The Hoops pushed hard to sign Ghedjemis during the winter window and had reached a point where a move looked realistic, only for the player to stay in Italy and help Frosinone with their promotion push.
That decision did not end Celtic’s interest.
Martin O’Neill later confirmed the club still had a “very, very strong interest” in the Algeria international, and his name remained on the radar going into the summer.
The problem was that the numbers changed.
Frosinone’s promotion to Serie A strengthened their position and the asking price moved well beyond the level Celtic had been dealing with months earlier.
By August, CeltsAreHere had clarified that reports of a fresh €9million Celtic bid were inaccurate.
The Hoops were then understood to be completely out of the race.
Celtic eventually moved for Haissem Hassan instead, while Ghedjemis stayed with Frosinone after the deadline.
His start to the season has been stop-start.
Ghedjemis played 45 minutes in the Coppa Italia win over Juve Stabia on August 16 and registered an assist.
He was then absent from the squads for Frosinone’s opening league matches against Juventus and Fiorentina, while he also missed the cup tie with Sassuolo.
Sunday brought his first Serie A minutes of the campaign.
That takes him to just 78 minutes of football across two appearances so far this season.
Frosinone manager Massimiliano Alvini has now made it clear that Ghedjemis will have to work his way back into the side.
“He needs to train to win back his spot,” he said: (TUTTOMercatoweb.com).
For Celtic, the summer pursuit is over.
The more interesting question now is whether Ghedjemis can rebuild his place at Frosinone after a window which left his future unresolved until the very end.
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