Celtic close in on major signing after making £5 million bid

Celtic have taken a major step towards completing the signing by making a £5 million bid with personal terms already agreed with the player.

With the season approaching fast, Celtic need to make a move quickly in the transfer market. It became very clear in the pre-season in France that Scott Bain is not the goalkeeper that the club should trust to be their main man between the sticks. He has never looked the most convincing and the pressure of delivering the 10IAR will just put more pressure on his shoulders.

Not too long ago, it had looked like the club had Fraser Forster lined up to return but unfortunately, the Englishman had other ideas. Now it looks like Southampton are eager to let him leave although Celtic seem to have already moved on with Greek international Vasilios Barkas now the number one target.

The club have already failed with a bid in the range of £4.1 million for the keeper but have now launched improved terms amounting to about £5 million according to the Glasgow Times.

It has been rumoured for quite some time that Barkas is very interested in turning up for the Hoops and has already agreed personal terms with the club. All that is left now is to agree a fee with AEK Athens although their seems to be growing confidence in the Celtic camp that it will be reached soon.

Already a full Greek international, there is no doubt that Barkas is a top goalkeeper. In fact, he might very well be an upgrade over Forster. And at just 26, he has much more long-term value to the club than his English counterpart.

The Greek Super League is very strong, consisting of the likes of Olympiacos, PAOK, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens themselves. As a result, he has decent experience playing at a high level. And in 33 appearances last season, he kept an impressive 16 clean-sheets, conceding just 26 times – less than a goal a game.

He is also expected to be on a much lower salary than Forster. As a result, the Englishman might have actually done the Hoops a favour by getting cold feet over the move.