A report has emerged this morning in the media that Celtic centre back Stephen Welsh is the subject of interest once again, after Toulouse were keen to sign him up on loan during the summer, with a rumoured option to buy of £3.5m.
The Record have ran an exclusive this morning from Scott Burns, the same journalist that brought us the exclusive that Giakoumakis was poised to leave in January, with heavy interest in the striker from European sides, after he failed to agree a new deal with the club.
He claims Welsh is attracting interest from England, Italy and France, and also Portugal, specifically with FC Porto keen on the 22 year old Scot.
So how does Burns get an exclusive like this, how does he know that there is interest in Welsh from teams from these specific countries?
His agent possibly, but from what I understand, Welsh is a huge Celtic fan and loves playing for the club, and I don’t think at this stage that he’s pushing his agent to try and get him a move away from the club.
And as I’ve wrote about before, I just don’t believe that we have some individual ‘leaker’ at the club, looking to cause trouble and unsettle things, I don’t buy that.
In my opinion, like I said before, I believe if we see things like this in the media, they are there because Ange and the club wants them there. It’s that simple.
I believe we’d have let Welsh go in the summer if money was offered up-front from Toulouse, rather than them wanting a loan with an option to buy.
We’ve just brought in Kobayashi to play centre back, which pushes Welsh further down the pecking order.
I think it’s clear that we want him off our books, and with the January window coming up, it’s the ideal time to do that.
Again, if multiple clubs are genuinely interested, which appears to be the case, then we should expect a decent fee in for Welsh, and if £3.5m was offered in an option to buy from Toulouse, I’d expect him to go for a similar amount up front, and I think the club feel they can get that for him in January.
If Celtic can bring in around £3.5 for what is essentially our fifth choice centre back, that is great business from the club.
