Celta Vigo are reported to be the club chasing the signing of Carl Starfelt.
After a couple of weeks speculation that the defender was looking to leave Brendan Rodgers confirmed the news before today#s SPFL opener against Ross County.
Starfelt was named as a substitute for the match with Maik Nawrocki paired together with Cameron Carter-Vickers with that duo only playing 45 minutes each in Celtic’s four pre-season matches.
Throughout Ange Postecoglou’s two seasons in charge of Celtic Starfelt and Carter-Vickers was the first choice defensive pairing but it now looks unlikely that they will team up again.
Ever since Starfelt’s partner Jacynta left Celtic for Sporting Lisbon there has been speculation that the Swede would also be on the move. If he joins Celta in the north west corner of Spain he’ll be less than an hours flight away from Lisbon.
The Sun reports:
CELTA VIGO are leading the chase to sign Celtic defender Carl Starfelt.
SunSport broke the news earlier this week the centre-back was on his way out of Parkhead. Brendan Rodgers confirmed today the £4million 28 year-old was set to be sold.
And now we can reveal it’s Spanish outfit Celta – managed by seasoned Spanish coach Rafa Benitez – who are frontrunners to strike a deal. The two clubs are in discussions with Starfelt eager to make the move happen.
Rodgers indicated that he will be looking to bring in a new central defender if Starfelt is sold which spells out bad news for Stephen Welsh and Liam Scales who both failed to make the matchday squad for today’s match.
Losing a key player after the season has got underway isn’t ideal but the signing of Nawrocki suggests that the club was preparing for Starfelt to move on.
After two successful seasons in Scotland Celtic could be looking for a fee of around £8m for Starfelt, double their 2021 outlay to Rubin Kazan.
Celtic looked unusually vulnerable during today’s match with Ross County scoring twice in the second half after forcing seven corners during the first 45 minutes.
Both of the goals were in the preventable category and give Rodgers plenty to work on during the week at training.
Fortunately Celtic don’t have any midweek fixtures until the Champions League begins in mid-September with Aberdeen at Pittodrie next Sunday the immediate target.
It took a very late goal from Callum McGregor to secure three points in Celtic’s only trip to Pittodrie last season but under Barry Robson the Dons are a much changed side.
Robson took over from Jim Goodwin following a disastrous run of results that saw Aberdeen lose 11 goals in Edinburgh either side of being knocked out of the Scottish Cup at Darvel.
From being in the bottom half of the table Robson led them to third place which gives them a Europa League Play Off tie at the end of the month, if they lose out there is the consolation of group stage football in the UEFA Conference.
Aberdeen opened their SPFL campaign with a brutal and bruising 0-0 draw away to Livingston on their notorious plastic pitch.
