Brendan Rodgers has gone into detail over Carl Starfelt’s expected departure from Celtic.
The issue came into the spotlight at 11.15am on Saturday when the Celtic team was announced for the match against Ross County with the Swede starting on the bench watching Cameron Carter-Vickers and Mail Nawrocki playing together in central defence.
Starfelt played more than any other central defender across Celtic’s four pre-season matches but with the competitive action getting underway he was left on the sidelines.
During an interview with Radio Scotland pre-match Rodgers mentioned transfer interest in the defender, after that more details emerged with Football Scotland reporting Rodgers saying:
The clubs are now in communication. I’m sure that will go through in the early part of next week, if not before. Clearly he probably felt it was now the time to move on. I have to say, he has been really respectful and has loved his time here at Celtic.
There are obviously certain conditions he has thought about in going to one of the top leagues. Economically, it is hard to compete on that side, and obviously his partner is no longer here any more and has moved on. So there are a number of reasons why he would like to move himself.
I have to say, a total professional, first class, and if it didn’t go through, then I know I can rely on him. But I think that it probably will.
No club was mentioned by Rodgers but Celta Vigo are believed to be close to getting the deal completed. There are many factors involved in transfers these days but it seems fairly unique, certainly to Celtic that the a player is leaving following the transfer of their partner.
Jacynta was one of the top players in the Scottish game last season but will be playing for Sporting Lisbon when the new term kicks off.
If Starfelt moves to Vigo then he’ll be less than an hour’s flight from Lisbon as Celtic look to bring in a new central defender with Rodgers apparently unconvinced by Stephen Welsh and Liam Scales who played in the pre-season matches.
The departure of Starfelt highlights the short term nature of team building with the Swede becoming the fourth of Ange Postecoglou’s summer 2021 signings to move on, following Josip Juranavic, Giorgos Giakoumakis and Jota out of the club.
In January Celtic’s Recruitment team came up with the goods by signing Alistair Johnston and Oh Hyeon-gyu, setting a high benchmark for future dealing.
Starfelt has never been a favourite of the Celtic support. Appreciated yes but not held with the same level of appreciation as Carter-Vickers.
It looks like there is no lack of transfer funds for Rodgers to work with but with just over three weeks left in the transfer window there is virtually no speculation over who Celtic might be looking at.
There is unlikely to be any further news coming out of Celtic till the end of the week and the pre-match coverage of the trip to Aberdeen who were held to a 0-0 draw yesterday at Livingston.
