Schalke defender Malick Thiaw is not on Celtic’s transfer radar, according to the latest reports from Sun Sport.
The 20-year-old centre-back was linked with the Hoops on Wednesday afternoon after Italian outlet Calciomercato stated that Ange Postecoglou’s side were ‘in talks’ over a potential move.
The links to Thiaw came alongside Schalke’s pursuit of Christopher Jullien, who looked all set to sign for the recently promoted Bundesliga side.
Supporters were intrigued to see that the German under-21 international was potentially in talks with Celtic after being highly rated amongst several sides across Europe.
Those include English Premier League duo, Everton and Liverpool. Italian giants AC Milan are also thought to be long-time admirers of the talented defender.
However, a lot can change in 24 hours during the transfer window.
As we reported earlier, Jullien’s move to Germany is now off due to a breakdown during the talks. And according to Sun Sport, Thiaw is not a player on Celtic’s radar this window, as they chase another central defender.
With the Schalke youngster being rated at upwards of £8 million, it doesn’t come as too much of a surprise to see that Celtic aren’t considering him at this time.
Although Ange Postecoglou is clearly on the hunt for a new defender to add to his squad, paying that fee would restrict the other areas he is aiming to improve this window.
There may now also be the added factor that the Celtic manager will have to get Jullien off the books before bringing in his replacement over the next few weeks.
It will be interesting to see what sort of avenue the Bhoys go down in our pursuit of a new centre-back, to join Cameron Carter-Vickers, Carl Starfelt and Stephen Welsh.
I am sure Postecoglou and his scouts will know what they are looking for and might have a few tricks up their sleeves.
In other news, Aberdeen boss Jim Goodwin confident of new Connor Barron contract amidst Celtic speculation.
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