Rangers chose not to sign star now worth £29m as Celtic priced out of exit-bound striker
With the winter window closed for business, let’s look at the Celtic and Rangers deals that did not materialise.
The winter transfer window is now closed for business and clubs will need to wait until the end of the season to revisit any deals they might have missed out on.
Celtic enjoyed a strong end to their window, as a Deadline Day loan swoop for Jeffrey Schlupp saw him join Jota as the Hoops’ two new additions this period. Rangers secured just the one new signing in Rafael Fernandes on loan from Lille, but the two Glasgow sides signed off on ten exits between them.
As is usually the case with most transfer windows, there were plenty of other discussions being held that did not come to fruition. Let’s take a look at some missed deals Celtic and Rangers were both involved in over the last month.
Celtic set to lose out on revisiting £8m star
Celtic were looking to add more firepower to their roster throughout the January window but a few deals failed to come to fruition. A proposed loan move for former Leicester City stay Kelechi Iheanacho struggled to get off the ground, and the Hoops’ interest in Slovan Bratislava’s David Strelec also amounted to nothing.
Reports have claimed the Slovakian side’s asking price of £8 million was deemed too high by Celtic, and now, Strelec looks set for a late switch elsewhere.
While Celtic had been hoping to potentially revisit their interest in the summer, Slovan’s general director Ivan Kmotrik has revealed there has been plenty of other interest in the striker and a whole new move could be close.
“I have to say that there is a huge explosion of interest around David, the situation is changing from hour to hour,” he said, via The National. “In the last two days, we have received an enormous number of offers. We are negotiating, discussing this topic, but nothing is closed. So I can't say yet how it will turn out.
“There are countries where the windows are still open. Negotiations were very close from clubs in a lot of countries. The offers are really too high for us to be able to approach it negatively in any way.”
Rangers opted not to sign midfielder who is now worth £29m
Rangers had been exploring a number of options over the winter window and were given the opportunity early on to sign Carney Chukwuemeka from Chelsea. According to Rangers Review, the Premier League side offered the midfielder to the Light Blues early in December, testing the waters over a potential short-term loan deal.
Naturally, a move did not materialise, which could be down to Chukwuemeka’s hefty wage packet. Since things fell silent between the two sides, the 21-year-old has signed with Borussia Dortmund on loan until the end of the season, and according to Kicker, there’s a handsome option to buy clause in his contract.
The German outlet has reported that BVB have paid less than €1 million (£831,500) to get the loan over the line but a purchase option of €35 million (£29m) has also been included. Dortmund could bring Chukwuemeka to Germany full-time in the summer but only if they activate this hefty clause.