Celtic narrowly missing out on signings is a tale as old as time.
From John McGinn to Kaoru Mitoma to Olivier Giroud, we’ve had a fair few ‘nearly’ signings who’ve gone on to great things.
Just months ago, Brendan Rodgers left the club acrimoniously after a disappointing transfer window which left him with, in his terms, a Honda Civic of a squad.
The Hoops are now embarking on a January transfer window in which Wilfried Nancy desperately needs a striker.
And one man he could definitely do with is Ivan Toney, who could’ve led the line for the Celts if things went slightly differently.
Should Julian Araujo be thrown straight in for a debut against Rangers?
Celtic’s near miss with Ivan Toney
Toney is now an England international, earning a fortune after making a £40 million move to Al Ahli in Saudi Arabia.
But five-and-a-half years ago, he was an up-and-coming striker at Peterborough United in League One.
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Back in 2020, Celtic were in need of a striker to partner Odsonne Edouard as Neil Lennon aimed to deliver Celtic’s tenth league title in a row.
Toney was on their radar, but they couldn’t agree a deal and he ended up at Brentford. Celtic signed Albian Ajeti instead.
The Posh chairman, Darragh MacAnthony, has looked back on the Hoops’ pursuit of Toney on Sky Sports FC.
He joked to Celtic fan Tino Callaghan: “I’ve got a number nine for you, but he’ll cost you £10 million.
“And you once tried to fly in and buy Ivan Toney off us, but you offered us half of what Brentford did. So you could’ve had Ivan Toney in years gone by.
“It was the ex-Reading guy [Nick Hammond] who flew in to meet Baz [Fry]. I forget who was doing the deals.
“Somebody flew in and Baz rang me. Obviously [Celtic] laughed when we gave our figure for [Toney].
“And obviously, they wouldn’t go anywhere near it for him. We were just like. ‘Well, that’s our figure.’ And to be fair, Brentford obviously paid it.
“So the rest is history.”
Is this the sort of player Celtic should be targeting?
Celtic’s 2020 summer transfer window
Going for Toney and ending up with Ajeti was just one of the several mishaps of Celtic’s summer 2020 transfer window.
Vasilis Barkas will return to Celtic Park with Utrecht this month. His £4 million signing that summer didn’t exactly give Lennon his money’s worth.
Shane Duffy and Diego Laxalt were two loan signings… neither ended up with fans clamouring for them to be signed permanently.
It wasn’t all terrible, to be fair – Mohamed Elyounoussi and David Turnbull had solid seasons.
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