Celtic could find themselves losing another of their top players this summer amid a string of expected exits. The Bhoys begin preparations for the new season this Friday, at least without the players currently at the World Cup, and the futures of many remain up in the air.
It has been a slow start to the summer transfer window for Celtic, who are yet to get off the mark in terms of recruits. To date, the Hoops haven't lost any players, either, but that is expected to change over the course of the next couple of months.
Arne Engels appears to be at the front of the exit queue amid big-money Premier League interest, while Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate are also being heavily linked with exits.
Nygren joints the exit queue
According to a report from SportsBoom, Celtic's talented winger Benjamin Nygren could be in for a move when he returns from the World Cup with Sweden. Nygren scored 21 and assisted nine this season and was clearly one of the Bhoys' most dangerous players.
It's now being claimed his form has been enough to attract interest from Tottenham, who are said to have moved to the front of the queue amid interest aplenty in the Premier League. It's added that Celtic value the winger as highly as £26million, and that they will not reduce that valuation.
Spurs are said to remain interested despite that valuation, while there is also interest further South, from Brighton and Bournemouth.
Celtic must be careful
While £26million sounds nice, Celtic need to be very careful in how many key players they sell this summer. The incoming money from Nygren, Engels, Maeda and Hatate would be huge, but replacing those players would be another thing altogether.
Celtic would be unlikely to spend tens of millions on more than one or two players, meaning the quality of the squad would almost certainly go down, with less quality players likely to be signed in the place of Nygren and Engels, in particular.
And confidence in Celtic finding and executing such targets is extremely low after a very disappointing and slow start to the summer transfer window.
For a club that knows it will lose at least two of the mentioned players this summer, it's a big surprise to see what will likely be a retrospective approach rather than a proactive one. You would be hard-pressed to find Bhoys fans who are currently optimistic about the season ahead as things stand.
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