One of the most prominent and well informed posters on Kerrydale Street fans forum, TheRepublican, who has a very good history of providing accurate transfer information, has hit out today at the club’s summer transfer business.
Key defender Carl Starfelt, who was a mainstay alongside Cameron Carter-Vickers in the heart of Celtic’s defence, was allowed to leave for Celta Vigo in the summer for a relatively low fee of only £4.28m.
Celtic then signed a replacement for Starfelt very quickly in the form of fellow Swede Gustaf Lagerbielke, because by all accounts, he was recommended to us by the agent who advises both players.
Lagerbielke was very quickly deemed not good enough by manager Brendan Rodgers, and would have been allowed to depart in the January window but for an injury to CCV.
Writing today on KDS, TheRepublican hit out at the whole saga, and demanded that Celtic conduct an internal investigation into the two transfers:
Lagerbielke should never have been signed in the first place …. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again …. This whole episode should be investigated !
Carl Starfelt was one of our best players and still had 2 years left on his contract ….. We allowed him to leave for not much money because he wanted to be close to his girlfriend ….. We then sign a player of lesser ability who was recommended by an agent who just happens to represent Starfelt & Lagerbielke, an agent who will make money from both transfers
So to summarise ….
1. Starfelt gets out of his contract and gets a new life in the sun with probably a salary increase
2. Elfsborg get a few million in their bank account
3. Lagerbielke gets a dream move after having played less than 20 odd games for Elfsborg, no doubt increasing his salary by at least tenfold
4. The agent involved gets two lots of commission from the transfers
5. Celtic FC lose one of their best players, while replacing him with a player not of the same standard, with more or less no financial gain involved
These set of unprofessional events would be under investigation at any other PLC …… Who sanctioned these suspicious set of events and what was the reasoning behind them ….. Celtic fans & shareholders deserve to know why our once great club is being downsized by certain individuals
A very passionate post there and understandably so.
I don’t think that is ever going to happen though, but that isn’t to say that it shouldn’t happen.
The argument will be though that Starfelt was in the last 2 years of his contract and so this was the best time to sell him to maximise returns, although I don’t believe we did that when we let him go on the cheap.
It will probably also be said that Rodgers had final say on the transfer, so Mark Lawwell won’t be taking the blame for it.
The whole situation stinks though, and it’s an utter disgrace Lagerbielke was signed, clearly, without proper scouting and due diligence from either the recruitment team or Rodgers himself.
