Celtic appear close to getting Ismaila Soro off the wage bill.
Signed in January 2020 from Israeli side Bnei Yehuda he was billed as a potential successor to Scott Brown but ended up going the same way as Youssouf Mulumbu and other cheap imitations.
Strangely Neil Lennon didn’t give Soro a minutes of playing time before lockdown started even though Patryk Klimala, Daniel Arzani and Marion Shved were given brief appearances.
During the Lockdown season Lennon remained reluctant to use Soro but he did make an impressive debut when he started alongside David Turnbull in the Europa League dead rubber against Lille.
While that match launched the career of the former Motherwell man it was only a brief run for Soro although he did end that grim season having started 12 matches.
Ange Postecoglou had little option but to involve Soro in his early matches in charge of Celtic but tellingly brought in midfielders Reo Hatate, Matt O’Riley and Yosuke Ideguchi during his first January transfer window.
This morning the Daily Record reported:
Beitar Jerusalem are confident of sealing a deal for Celtic misfit Ismaila Soro this week after their manager promised three new signings.
Soro is in talks with Celtic to mutually terminate his contract which still has a year to go after being frozen out under his last two managers, Brendan Rodgers and Ange Postecoglou. And the Israeli side are increasingly confident they will finally land the Ivory Coast midfielder after trying for over a month now, following their opening league game defeat to Hapoel Haifa.
Manager Yossi Abukasis said: “We are working on it. There are several candidates that I hope will not run away from us at the last second. I hope that at least three players will join in the coming days.”
Beitar thought they had secured Soro, who spent last season on loan at Portuguese outfit Arouca, earlier this month, but he opted to move to French second-tier outfit Valenciennes instead. However, the move fell through because of red tape leaving Soro in footballing limbo. But he now seems set for a return to Israel where he previously played for two years at Bnei Yehuda before his move to Celtic.
If Soro and Albian Ajeti can be moved on that will clear up some space at the club but with five year contracts the norm in recent deals this sort of issue is likely to be recurring.
