Sky Sports man hands Celtic Vinicius Souza transfer blow

Celtic must be delighted with their summer transfer window till now, having signed Cameron Carter-Vickers, Jota, Daizen Maeda, Benjamin Siegrist and Alexandro Bernabei on permanent deals already. Thus, it is safe to say that Ange Postecoglou already has a solid squad to pick his starting XI from, but there are a few areas which still need reinforcements.

One of them is defensive midfield. Nir Bitton left the club at the end of last season. The club do have options in there in the form of Ismaila Soro, Yosuke Ideguchi and James McCarthy but none of them impressed last season.

As a result, the Hoops could do with an enforcer in the middle of the park and one player that they have been linked with heavily is Lommel SK’s Vinicius Souza. Some rumours had even suggested that it was a two horse race for the Brazilian midfielder between Celtic and Fenerbahce, but now, it appears that they have been joined by others.

As tweeted out by Anthony Joseph, Espanyol and Real Betis have made loan offers for Souza, and City Football Group would prefer a straight loan, with no option-to-buy clause, as they’d rather not let go of the midfielder permanently:

Celtic handed transfer blow as Espanyol and Real Betis join Souza race

Someone like Souza could be a terrific addition to this Celtic squad. He is currently with Belgian second division side Lommel SK but impressed immensely on loan while with top flight club KV Mechelen last season.

Those performances appear to have caught the eyes of clubs all around Europe, including that of Celtic, but it is clear that the race for his signature is not going to be easy.

Both Real Betis and Espanyol can prove to be interesting options for Souza, but Celtic do have Champions League football to offer.