Any offer for Carl Starfelt must be rebuffed. It has been reported this morning by Mark Hendry at Football Scotland that our Swedish centre back is a target for Russian side Spartak Moscow.
Whether there’s any truth in this remains to be seen, but Carl is a decent defender and has experience of playing in Russia with Rubin Kazan, the side Celtic signed the Swedish international from. So it wouldn’t come as a surprise if there was any substance to such rumours.
The question is, will the club entertain any bid? Hopefully they tell the Russians to beat it, as it’s well documented how fragile our defensive situation is at the moment. Despite his critics within our support there can be no arguing with the defensive record at Celtic when Carl Starfelt and Cameron Carter-Vickers play as the central pairing.
We may be signing Maik Nawrocki, but we need all the quality in that area that we can get and Carl is a quality player, despite the criticism he gets from a section of our support. Which is in my opinion totally unfair.
Carl is still first choice beside CCV in my eyes and we must rebuff any offer to sign him, with Maik Nawrocki being given time to bed in to the demands of playing for Celtic.
But as we always say, money talks in football and if Celtic receive an attractive enough offer for any player then that will always be considered. Northwards of £10m will certainly get Michael Nicholson’s attention.
Finally there’s also the personal situation to consider. Carl Starfelt’s parter is the former Celtic FC women star Jacynta who recently signed for the Sporting Club in Portugal. Maybe Moscow would be too far away from Lisbon?
Then there’s the situation with Russian football due to the war with Ukraine, would Starfelt want to play in the capital city of a country at war?
Even if the money is enough to tempt Celtic, the player himself might prefer to remain at Celtic. And is there not likely to be a problem with any financial transaction with a Russian club due to the sanctions that in place against Russia? That has to be considered too.
Hopefully nothing happens with this one because as it stands Carl Starfelt is needed at Celtic.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
Vinicius Junior and Carl Starfelt during Real Madrid vs Celtic Glasgow Champions League match on November 02, 2022 at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. Photo: Cebolla/Senis/ ALFAQUI Madrid Santiago
Morning Gossip: Great news that Abada wants to stay, he will be a big player under Brendan this season. He also looks much fitter. Speculation of interest in Carl Starfelt from Spartak Moscow. Can’t see this given our injury situation. Aberdeen keen on Liam Scales. HH pic.twitter.com/DBfkYBTzvK
— Celtic Gossip (@CelticGossip) July 24, 2023
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