Maik Nowrocki is closing in on a five year contract with Celtic.
Over the last 48 hours there has been a momentum behind the transfer from Legia Warsaw that has been absent from other speculative moves to Celtic.
News emerged from Poland on Thursday afternoon of interest, by Friday night the defender was reported to be in Glasgow for a medical with Sky Sports and others reporting that the medical has been completed.
Five year contracts seem to be the way that Celtic do business with the Polish u-21 defender set to become the first significant signing of Brendan Rodgers’ second spell at Celtic.
🚨Maik Nawrocki podpisze pięcioletni kontrakt z Celtic Glasgow. 22-latek przeszedł już testy medyczne w Szkocji. Kwota powyżej 5 milionów euro. @Meczykipl
— Tomasz Włodarczyk (@wlodar85) July 22, 2023
TRANSLATION: Maik Nawrocki will sign a five-year contract with Celtic Glasgow. The 22-year-old has already undergone medical tests in Scotland. Amount over 5 million euros. @Meczykipl
Włodarczyk as over 154,000 followers on Twitter, writing for Polish website Meczyki
Nawrocki was born and brought up in Bremen, played for Werder but has been a Polish internationalist since u-15 level.
Two years ago he left Werder for Legia Warsaw just as Josip Juranovic was moving to Celtic from the Polish club.
Nawrocki is reported to have been in touch with Juranovic who is likely to have left a glowing report about Celtic on the back of a 12 month spell that involved playing in the Champions League, World Cup Finals and the Bundesliga to secure another Champions League place with Union Berlin.
That sort of template is bound to appeal to most players with Celtic able to provide a platform to perform and move on if success is achieved.
Cameron Carter-Vickers has yet to be involved in Celtic’s pre-season preparations, with two weeks to go until the SPFL opener at home to Ross County it is clear that Rodgers requires more strength and options in central defence.
Ironically Rodgers watched two sides return clean sheets in his side’s 1-0 win over Gamba Osaki this morning.
Carl Starfelt and Stephen Welsh played in front of Joe Hart in the first half with Bosun Lawal and Liam Scales the second half partnership ahead of Ben Siegrist with an 85th minute goal from Alexandro Bernabei settling the result.
If all goes well in the Nawrocki deal the new bhoy can have his fitness assessed by the Celtic medical team ahead of the first team squad returning from Japan on Monday.
Next Saturday’s friendly against Wolves in Dublin should be a realistic target for his debut as Rodgers gets to reshape the squad with his stamp after taking over from Ange Postecoglou.
Without Carter-Vickers in the side Celtic looked very vulnerable in the post-split fixtures, conceding nine goals in the four matches that followed clinching the SPFL title away to Hearts.
Getting Nawrocki integrated with the rest of the squad will provide a fresh option and take away any pressure for Carter-Vickers to be rushed back into action.
After undergoing knee surgery at the start of May no definite timeline has been set out for his return to action although trips to Pittodrie and Ibrox in the early weeks of the SPFL are in the mind of Celtic supporters.
One interesting feature from the two matches has been the repositioning of Daizen Maeda as a striker rather than an industrious left winger.
Against Yokohama F Marinos on Wednesday Maeda scored a first half hat-trick, today against Osaka he had a first half strike wrongly disallowed for offside.
Odin Thiago Holm played in the ‘second half side’ today, making his debut in central midfield alongside Matt O’Riley.
CELTIC 1ST HALF: Hart; Iwata, Welsh, Starfelt, Taylor; Hatate, McGregor, Turnbull; Abada, Forrest, Maeda.
CELTIC 2ND HALF: Siegriest; McPherson (Summers 90), Lawal, Scales, Bernabei; Holm, O’Riley; Haksabanovic, Kyogo, Oh, Vata.
Subs: Bain, Kelly
