Celtic’s striker search continues but one target who won’t be signing for Martin O’Neill is Franko Kovacevic.
The Croatian forward was said to be of interest to O’Neill after Celtic were linked with Kovacevic earlier this week.
The Celtic manager addressed the links to Kovacevic in his Scottish Cup press conference this week as O’Neill admitted he ‘may have looked’ at the towering striker at some point during his search.
How much would you pay for Franko Kovacevic?
But now, it seems, that Celtic can stop assessing Kovacevic as he has reportedly agreed to join Robbie Keane’s Ferencvaros in a bargain deal that even the Celtic board could have agreed on.
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Celtic could have signed Franko Kovacevic for £2.6m
The Daily Record reports that Kovacevic has decided to move to the Hungarian league instead of the Scottish champions to join Ferencvaros.
Manager Robbie Keane has managed to nab the big Croatian striker in a deal said to be worth £2.6m with personal terms already agreed.
That is a massive slap in the face for Celtic, whose desperation for a striker steps up a notch with just over two weeks of the transfer window to go.
O’Neill now needs to go back to the drawing board as Celtic fan impatience grows at the lack of transfer activity at the club.
Franko Kovacevic’s goalscoring record
So what was the scramble for Celtic to sign Kovacevic all about then? The fact that the striker is having the season of his life with 25 goals in 28 games might be the reason.
The Croatian has been prolific for Slovenian side NK Celje, and has scored 12 goals in 13 games across the Europa League qualifiers and into the Europa Conference League.
Kovacevic now embarks on the next step of his career as Celtic now go back to the drawing board feeling a bit red-faced as the search for that elusive striker continues.
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