How close Gustaf Lagerbielke came to Champions League winners before Celtic snapped him up

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Gustaf Lagerbielke has not shown enough to warrant a Celtic stay beyond this summer.

The centre-half struggled to nail down a starting spot under Brendan Rodgers last season with Liam Scales – initially considered a fringe player – playing far more minutes than the Swede.

When Lagerbielke did feature for Celtic he netted a winner against Feyenoord in the Champions League while showing the other side of his game as he was sent off in the reverse fixture. Consistency was never his thing.

Celtic sanctioned a loan for the defender to head to FC Twente where he has managed two goals and three assists from 26 outings in all competitions. A decent return for the 24-year-old who will be glad to be playing regularly.

For Lagerbielke, his move to Celtic in 2023 has obviously not panned out the way he’d have wanted it to but it could have been so different for the centre-back, as one former scout explained.

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Lagerbielke was scouted by multi-time Champions League winners Ajax

Ex-Ajax chief scout Hans van der Zee has revealed how he had suggested Lagerbielke to the four-time Champions League winners while he was with Elfsborg.

Speaking to 1Twente VoetbalTijd, Van der Zee said: “I had him in mind for Ajax at one point, when he was still playing for Elfsborg. At one point he went to Celtic for £3.5million.

“They paid £3.5m for him but I don’t think he did well at Celtic, otherwise they wouldn’t loan him out.

“You won’t get him for less than £3m.”

That was Van der Zee’s advice for Twente who want to keep hold of the Sweden international beyond his loan stint.

Celtic now have Cameron Carter-Vickers, Auston Trusty, Scales and Maik Nawrocki is still in the door albeit he’s barely kicked a ball either this season.

Dane Murray is also an option so it’s unlikely Lagerbielke will come back any time soon with Stephen Welsh also on loan from Celts in Belgium and ready to return at the end of the current campaign.

What Brendan Rodgers said about Celtic’s Gustaf Lagerbielke

Manager Rodgers has previously had his say on Lagerbielke and noted that players are free to weigh up all options when they are not in the starting plans.

“It just all depends. Gus has shown a terrific attitude. He didn’t get so much game time last season but he’s got his head down,” the gaffer said on the player’s future before he moved to Netherlands.

“He had the chance to go on loan in January but we needed to keep him due to the injuries we had in that position. But he’s worked very hard over pre-season and we’ll see what happens.

“You see the players are happy and working well, but all players want to play. If they can’t get the game time with us, they may look elsewhere. In this moment, he’s working very hard, and when he is asked, he comes in and does well.”