Croatian outfit Hajduk Split have admitted that they’ll look at potentially selling Celtic-linked Mario Vuskovic at the end of the season.
Vuskovic’s name has been bandied around Celtic discussion over the last few days. This comes after prominent Italian journalist, Nicolo Schira, reported that Celtic had made a €5m (£4.3m) offer that had been rejected for the Croatian under-20’s services.
Celtic are still without a new manager, but that hasn’t stopped big transfer decisions from being made. The Hoops saw off Patryk Klimala last week, whilst Liam Shaw was signed up on a pre-contract just before Neil Lennon departed. So if they want to move for Vuskovic, someone clearly has the authority to make that decision.
But even so, Split have confirmed that they’ll only look at his position at the end of the season. As they defended the fact they don’t need to sell anytime soon, the Croats did leave the door open for further offers this summer.
As quoted by the Scottish Sun, Hajduk’s president, Luksa Jakobusic, said the following:
“I can neither confirm nor deny the recent reports about a bid for Mario. The player will only be sold if the deal represents good business sense for the club. We are no longer in a position where we have to sell players to survive.
“The club is in a much better position financially and we will look at Mario’s position at the end of the season.”
Hajduk Split not ruling anything out; Mario Vuskovic fits the profile that would excite Celtic fans
Everything about Vuskovic would clearly excite the Celtic fans if we managed to lure him to Parkhead.
He’s represented Croatia at u-17, u-19, and u-21 level respectively. In addition to that, he’s had a huge breakthrough campaign with Hajduk after managing 26 appearances to his name. His side still has another six games remaining for him to add to that collection.
At 19 years of age, he would also come with plenty of potential. It suits the famous buy low, sell high policy the club has adopted over the years. All the while we would be potentially getting a future Croatian first-team centre-back playing for us regularly.
You would of course have to question the reasoning around signing players without a manager in place. If Split are rejecting offers in excess of £4m, is it wise to go much higher for a player the new boss won’t like? It would seem naive and counter-productive to make a big-money signing like that without our permanent manager in position.
But it’s also important to understand what Hajduk generally sell for. Only five players in the club’s history have gone for a bigger fee than the £4.3m Celtic reportedly had rejected. Even then, the dearest was only £9.72m for Nikola Vlasic [Transfermarkt].
This is a deal Celtic should have the money to get done should we decide to go ahead with it. But, unless a new boss is in the door, it would seem a touch odd to splash any heavy cash.
In other news, a journalist has claimed Eddie Howe is stalling as he provided an update on the Englishman.
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