A number of first-team stars are expected to leave Celtic in the upcoming summer transfer window. One of them is the club’s talisman Odsonne Edouard.
The Frenchman has been absolutely brilliant ever since joining the club. He is the Hoops’ all-time record signing and has managed to justify the £9 million transfer fee that they shelled out to bring him to Parkhead.
Yes, there have been periods this season when he has looked out of form. But even that has not stopped him from scoring 20 goals. This is the third-straight campaign that he has crossed the 20-goal mark for the Hoops.
There is only a little over a more year left on his current deal with the club though and as a result, it is very likely that he is headed for the Parkhead exit door this summer. But it looks like Inter Milan had made an offer for the Frenchman last summer. But it was rejected by the Scottish giants. While speaking on Give Me Sport and as reported by Glasgow Live, Fabrizio Romano said:
"“I’m told that in the last days of the last summer window, Inter were thinking of Edouard as an opportunity, as a backup option for Lukaku.”“That was impossible because Celtic wanted a permanent deal and they were offering a loan with buy option. Also Roma are interested in him.”"
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Did Celtic make the right decision by rejecting Inter Milan’s offer for Edouard?
Now, it is not hard to understand why the Hoops rejected Inter Milan’s offer for Edouard. It was a loan offer with an option to buy. But if Celtic were to let Edouard leave, they definitely needed to sign a replacement for him. As a result, it was going to be very difficult to let him leave on loan.
Yes, in hindsight, after failing to secure 10IAR, it does look like a mistake holding on to Edouard, now that he has only a year left on his contract at the end of the season. But back then, it was the right decision. At the end of the day, nobody could have predicted how badly this campaign would turn out for the club.
Back in the last summer transfer window, the striker was rated at higher than £25 million. It is unlikely that he will command that kind of a fee this summer though.