A report in the Scottish Sun has claimed that Celtic want closer to £20m for Odsonne Edouard despite speculation that a £15m fee had been agreed.
The Times reported on Saturday night that the Hoops and Leicester had agreed a £15m fee for the striker’s services. This comes with the player now into the final year of his Celtic contract.
However, the Sun contradicted this last night. They instead believe that an agreement hasn’t yet been reached and that Celtic want closer to the £20m for their prized asset. They are said to be mindful of the mammoth sell-on fee PSG have for him, rumoured to be worth 50% [Daily Record].
In the past, Celtic have reportedly slapped on price-tags worth as much as £40m on the Frenchman [Daily Mail]. However, after a poor collective campaign combined with the fact we could lose him for nothing in January, that valuation has come down dramatically.
But even as the clubs appear to be haggling over a few million, an agreement still looks inevitable.
Celtic can be happy with £20m for Odsonne Edouard
Many will feel that Edouard should be going for much more than this. You can understand that with everything he’s achieved at Parkhead as well as his surreal scoring record for the France under-21s.
However, unfortunately this is the risk we took last summer. I’ve never criticised Celtic for refusing to sell Edouard 12 months ago. We were pushing for 10-in-a-row, and if we had done then the narrative would’ve been that we were weakening our squad before the most important campaign in our history.
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If we decided to hold on to Edouard, there were always going to be risks involved. We knew what the situation would be like this summer. Now, after a failure to secure the 10, it just looks all the more poorer a decision. But only hindsight gives us that clarity.
Should the Hoops bag as much as £20m, we can be happy. It would potentially allow us to rake in £10m for him. That is of course should PSG have as much as a 50% stake in any deal. That will still go a long way towards helping with the rebuild. It’s £2.5m more than we would’ve gotten if we agreed to a £15m deal.
This summer, every penny matters. It says a lot about the quality Edouard has that we can look at a 22-goal season and say he’s had a poor campaign [Transfermarkt]. Whereas, if we’re looking at potential 22-goal signing targets, chances are you would be impressed with his figures.
So £20m all in would be a decent return for him. There’s only so much we should allow his contract situation to strip off his valuation. Any less than £20m should continue to be booted out the door.