Flop who made cash sacrifice for Celtic under Brendan Rodgers nears transfer to join Patrick Vieira
He had a disappointing spell at Celtic but he has managed to put that behind him.
A star who struggled at Celtic could be set for a move to a club managed by Arsenal and French legend Patrick Vieira.
For every shrewd signing like Matt O’Riley, Jota and Jeremie Frimpong in the recent past at Parkhead, there have been those who have underwhelmed or disappointed for various reasons. Brendan Rodgers has had his share of hits and misses in the transfer market over two spells and one from his first is now poised for a Serie A move.
Jeremy Toljan arrived on loan from Borussia Dortmund in January 2019 but left at the end of his temporary spell having made 14 appearances, with limited impact. He has featured 171 times for Sassuolo, who he’s been with since leaving Parkhead, but that spell could be coming to an end.
Celtic flop wanted for Serie A transfer
It has been claimed by TuttoMercato that Genoa are closing in on a move for the right back after his form in Italy at a side who have gained promotion from Serie B. Vieira has been backed as their manager and one of their first moves of the summer will be to sign the former Celtic man.
Toljan said in 2019 of his move to Parkhead: “This is an exciting move for me and I’m delighted to be joining a club like Celtic, which has a great reputation throughout Europe. I’m looking forward to meeting my new team-mates and working with the manager, and I’ll be doing everything I can to help the team to be successful in the remainder of this season. I can't wait to get started and give all I can for this great, iconic club."
Celtic sacrifices made to make transfer
Upon signing the German defender, Rodgers revealed the wages extent Toljan went to in order to make his Celtic move a reality. He said at the time: “He is a player who has sacrificed his own wages and money to want to come here to play which shows a sign he is hungry to get his career back on track again. That says everything for me. It says everything in terms of wanting to get football and get playing. He recognises this is a big club which gives him the opportunity to do that.
“It is a great attitude to start with and I look forward to working with him. He is very quick, he is dynamic and he also gives us flexibility because he can play on both sides. He has played a lot for Dortmund on the left-hand side as well. He brings that athleticism I like players in my team to have. In the modern game, at the higher levels you have to be able to defend the central areas, the middle, but also be able to get out and he has the pace to do that and get tight to people. He has a good profile – six foot, fast and dynamic. He gives us another dimension. It was unfortunate for him at Dortmund.
“He went there as a young player after going through the German system. Sometimes that happens when there are a couple of changes of manager and you don’t play as often as you want. We had tracked him a while back but we couldn’t get him. There was no hunger from them to want to do anything.
“He is a player the recruitment team were aware of for some time but we felt it was outside of our reach and there was no desire from them to let him out in the summer. He is one we have known about but probably didn’t think we could get and thankfully the club has been able to do an agreement and the boy has made a sacrifice as well.”