The Odsonne Edouard transfer story was one that always bugged me. Not the fact that he left or how much money he left for, but for the sell on clause attached to the deal when Celtic purchased the classy striker for £9m back in the Brendan Rodgers era.
I wrote today about a similar clause being inserted into the Filipe Jota deal and said I was unhappy that the board had allowed a clause of even HIGHER value be inserted into that loan to buy deal.
If Celtic where to purchase Jota and sell him in the future, Benfica would be owed 50% of, what I will assume, is any profit made on further deals for the upcoming Portuguese winger.
I quite clearly understand the market we are in and I am also well aware that clubs like PSG and Benfica would not entertain a bid from a Scottish club unless it included a sell on clause, but 50%?
With Celtic’s excellent track record of developing talent and giving them a world wide fan base and showcase, it is shrewd business from the selling clubs, but I still don’t like it.
Now my colours are nailed firmly to the wall on this, Anthony Joseph was speaking about the Odsonne Edouard deal to Crystal Palace with the boys from The Celtic Exchange podcast and gave a break down of the excellent work the Celtic board put in to increase their profit margin on one of Europe’s top talents, “In terms of Edouard, Celtic wanted clauses that were achievable.
“And we understand them to be rising up to £18.5 million pounds, and any money now that comes in from the additional clauses will be going directly to Celtic that is not part of the initial fee, which was in the clause with Celtic and PSG.
“It was 40% of the profit from the transfer fee only.
“And that is from the £14 million fee. So anything more that comes in from Edouard, anymore riches will be going to Celtic directly.
“And that’s quite cleverly done because a lot of people say, ‘He’s gone for £14 million that’s underwhelming’.
“Even with this situation of his contract, because people were seeing Celtic were looking to get around £18 to £20 million for him.
“They are still are likely to get that because I’m told that these are very achievable clauses.”
So it seems the board deserve a lot of credit for maximising the amount of money to be earned from Edouard considering his contract situation and you just hope that there is a hefty sell on clause inserted into the deal as we all know I’m a huge fan of these.