Celtic have a real pressing need to find a replacement for Joe Hart this summer after the veteran stopper announced he is going to retire at the end of this season.
I would have loved Hart to have stayed on for another season as he has been in excellent form for Brendan Rodgers at Celtic so far. And his leadership qualities will be a huge loss to the Parkhead dressing room.
The experienced ‘keeper has saved us on a number of occasions from dropping even more points than we have at this stage of the season and, for that, he deserves tremendous credit.
However, it’s not meant to be and now Celtic must make the search for his replacement an absolute priority this summer.
Celtic have recently been heavily linked to Liverpool’s keeper Caoimhin Kelleher. The Irish international has recently come in from the cold at Anfield and it’s now been suggested that it could cost at least £20m to prise him away from the EPL giants.
That automatically rules the Hoops out of making a move so Rodgers will now need to look at other potential targets.
One such target was reported to be Real Madrid’s reserve stopper, Andriy Lunin. Celtic were heavily linked with the Ukrainian international over the past two transfer windows but a move failed to materialise.
That speculation intensified further last November. But now, it seems, that potential move could be dead in the water.
Andriy Lunin to be offered a new Real Madrid contract
Lunin’s current deal with the La Liga giants expires at the end of next season. Currently on £57k per week [SalarySport], the 25-year-old is probably just outside of Celtic’s range in terms of salary but a loan move could have been an option.
But that may well now be out of the question after Fabrizio Romano‘s latest update on social media channel X.
Romano said, “Understand Real Madrid have already prepared new contract proposal for Andriy Lunin.
“Current deal expires in June 2025 but Real definitely want Lunin to stay.
“It will depend on Lunin’s decision, but club and also manager trust him while they wait for Courtois to be back.”
Lunin has made 23 appearances for Madrid this season as Courtois recovers from injury. The Galacticos have been unbeaten since the Ukrainian was given the gloves and it looks like he has cemented his place in the squad and, possibly, the first team.
Remarkably, before this season, Lunin had only made 26 first-team appearances for Real Madrid since he joined the club back in 2018. [Transfermarkt]
It was that lack of gametime that Celtic was probably hoping to exploit to tempt him to come to Paradise but now that he’s proven his worth to the Spanish giants, the likelihood of them allowing him to leave, even on loan, is a lot slimmer now.
So it looks like it could be back to the drawing board for Rodgers and Celtic because if Vasilis Barkas has taught us anything about his time at Parkhead it’s that we cannot afford to make another mistake when recruiting for this particular position in the team.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
