Celtic “look like” missing out on Jose Cifuentes

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Celtic could be about to miss out on long-standing summer target Jose Cifuentes, according to a renowned journalist.

Sun reporter Alan Nixon took to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon to share the news that the Ecuadorian midfielder Cifuentes was bound for Portugal following weeks of Celtic rumours.

If the report is correct and Cifuentes moves to Porto, then more scrutiny will be placed on the Celtic board. Throughout this summer they have missed out on many targets including David Turnbull, Romain Perraud and Romaine Sawyers while the lack of options at full-back have barely been addressed either.

Cifuentes was never seen as a major signing for the club but he did seem to have pedigree and was recently called up to the Ecuador national team for the first time.

Celtic were most definitely interested in Cifuentes

In the middle of July, Neil Lennon told BBC Sportsound: “I can’t confirm there is an interest (in Cifuentes).

“Again, it’s a player who we know very little about but one that has come up on the radar so that’s all I can say on that one.”

The fact the 20-year-old had come up on Celtic’s “radar” suggests that there was something to the reports and they weren’t just media rumours.

Cifuentes, himself, has spoken about the possibility of moving to Scotland.

In early July he told the Scottish Sun: “My aim is to play in Europe. I don’t know which club I will sign for yet – either Manchester City or Celtic.

“Nothing has been decided yet.

“I deserve my opportunity to play in Europe, it’s where I have to be. And my mentality is that I am going to be in Europe for a long time.”

Now it seems like the youngster is going to get his move to Europe, but perhaps not exactly where he expected. Some Celtic fans may argue that we’re actually pretty well sorted in the middle of the park. We have Scott Brown, Olivier Ntcham and Callum McGregor as first-choice options while Nir Bitton and Luca Connell can also fill in when required.

But the truth is that we are probably one or two injuries away from having a bit of a crisis in midfield. Someone like Cifuentes would have added a much needed freshness into the team and hopefully kept his teammates on their toes.

Sadly it looks like yet another transfer target is going to slip through our fingers.