It was reported a couple of days ago that Dutch giants Ajax are weighing up a move for Celtic’s Israeli winger Liel Abada, as rumours persist that he is looking to leave the hoops this summer after turning down a contract extension, despite the 21 year old still having three years left on his current deal.
And now it is being reported tonight that Portuguese giants Benfica are also interested in signing Abada, who has scored 12 goals this season with seven assists, despite the fact that he doesn’t start most games.
The news was reported earlier tonight on The Celtic Star Transfer Latest – Nicolo Shira confirms interest from Ajax and Benfica in Celtic ace Abada (thecelticstar.com)
It’s very interesting that Benfica are interested in Abada, and one of the reasons is they have an excellent scouting network and if they have a genuine interest in Abada, it’s because they not only believe he will be a great addition to their team, but they will also believe that they will sell him on for huge money down the line.
This is a club that has a reputation of getting massive money for their players.
Their last sale netted them 121m euros when Enzo Fernandez left for Chelsea, a holding midfield player.
The prior window in the summer they sold Darwin Nunez to Liverpool for 80m euros.
Since the turn of the century they have brought in over 1bn euros in transfer fees alone. Crazy money.
But you know why they’ve been so successful in bringing in huge huge transfer fees? Because they demand rival clubs pay these huge sums and they don’t budge on their asking price.
Sure, these players have also done well in Champions League and World Cup games prior to their big moves, and I’m sure that definitely helped to bump up the price.
But guess what? Josip Juranovic was arguably the best right back at the World Cup and Celtic sold him for pennies in comparison.
Do you think if Benfica had Juranovic they would have sold him for £7.5-10m which includes all potential add ons?
They wouldn’t have even bothered responding to the email with that type of offer. They would have assumed it was a wind up.
And Ajax, they’ve raked in 216m euros from this summer alone in transfer fees.
Again, they refused to budge until Man United stumped up 95m euros for Antony.
This is a player who scored 10 domestic goals last season and got 6 assists in Holland and who is slightly older than Abada.
I’ve seen enough Dutch football over the las couple of seasons and the overall standard is not great at all.
We’re being told by pundits in the media like Kenny Miller Celtic should get £7-10m for Abada.
Can you imagine if Abada was playing for Ajax and had similar numbers to what he has at Celtic, worse stats even, that they would have pundits over there telling them the most they can possibly hope for is £7-10m?
These are the same pundits that were saying Calvin Bassey was a £20m player after three good games at the end of last season, a player who has been an absolute shambles since joining Ajax and has been heavily criticised by their fans and ex-players.
But fair play to the Ibrox club in that situation, because they stuck to their guns on that figure and they got it.
Celtic must do the same. The stats this young man has in his first couple of seasons at Celtic are frightening, especially since he comes off the bench a lot.
If we want to keep progressing as a club we can’t sell ourselves short and be bullied by the likes of Benfica and Ajax if they try to lowball us, which they will, to begin with at least.
These clubs progress because they scout top talent and then sell them on for big fees. Because they demand big fees and accept nothing less.
Celtic have the talent in this squad. We have players in this team that if all going well, will go right to the very top of the game.
We cannot allow ourselves to be walked over this summer and in the coming windows.
Any talk of £7-10m bids coming in for players of Abada’s stats and future potential, should be laughed out the door by Celtic.
