Sky Sports have “revealed” the fee that it would take for Celtic to part ways with Odsonne Edouard and for Arsenal to get their man as reported by The Daily Express.
Edouard has been the subject of increase speculation since January with a host of Premier League clubs said to be monitoring the French youth international.
The 22-year old has been in exceptional form this season with 27 goals and 19 assists in his 45 appearances, and would surely have led the Hoops to an unprecedented fourth consecutive treble had it not been for the cornovairus pandemic putting a halt to football in Scotland.
Speaking on Sky Sports transfer Q and A, Kaveh Solhekol said of Edouard’s link with the Gunners:
“He’s had a great season, scoring 28 times, and he’s only 22 so it’s not surprising other clubs are looking at him closely.
“He’s got two years left on his Celtic contract and he could sign a new deal.
“The biggest fee that a Scottish club have ever received for a player is the £25m Arsenal paid Celtic for Kieran Tierney last summer.
“Someone would need to offer more than that for Celtic to be tempted to do business and that kind of money is unlikely to be flying round the transfer market during the next window.
“Leicester have been watching him closely and Brendan Rodgers knows all about him from his time managing Celtic.”
Make of that as you will but any Hoops fan could probably tell you the same thing, Celtic will want more than they received for their left-back that they sold for £25million last summer, hardly a surprise when you see the numbers that Edouard has been producing and how much he is improving year-on-year.
Nobody knows what state the transfer market will be in when football returns but Celtic (and Scottish clubs in general) shouldn’t return to the bad old ways of being a cheap option for English clubs looking to take a punt on up and coming stars.
Arsenal would be a good fit for Edouard but much will depend on the future of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, if he stays at the Emirates it is unlikely that the Celtic forward would want to sit on the bench, regardless of the quality in front of him, not that fans of the Parkhead club would be bothered about him having to stick around for number ten mind.