Celtic have had a fair few ‘what ifs’ in the transfer market.
At this point, it’s become a trademark. John McGinn, Kaoru Mitoma, Olivier Giroud… the list goes on.
Back in Ange Postecoglou’s reign, Celtic made a fair few great attacking signings. Jota, Kyogo and Daizen Maeda are just three who made a real impact.
But ahead of his second season, Celtic were linked with Antoine Semenyo, a forward for Championship side Bristol City.
Semenyo has now completed a £65 million move to Manchester City, after being chased by near-enough every Premier League side this January. So how possible was a Celtic move?
Intrigued to see your lists…
Antoine Semenyo’s Celtic links revisited
Semenyo ended up joining Bournemouth that January, after staying put in the summer. The Cherries paid £9 million for his services.
He became indispensable at the south coast club, earning his big move to the Etihad.
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But had Celtic’s interest materialised in 2022, things could’ve been very different – his agent, Tony Finnigan, discussed the interest with Football Scotland at the time.
He said: “I had a conversation with [Craig] Strachan (Senior scout at the time), who rang up to ask little bits of info on the player and a bit about how I found him and what he’s like as a lad.
“That was it. If it’s something they’re going to do in the summer window I’m not sure but it’s nice to know that his talents are going as far as Scotland to one of the great institutions in world football.
“There’s not really much more to say than that.”
The Hoops never did submit an official bid for the player. He was linked with Rangers too.
A two-footed winger, Semenyo can play anywhere across the frontline, according to City manager Pep Guardiola.
He became Bournemouth’s record sale with the move, surpassing Dean Huijsen after his summer move to Real Madrid.
Celtic were linked with Veljko Milosavljevic in the last summer transfer window, before he too moved to Bournemouth. Let’s hope that the process doesn’t repeat again… knowing that it probably will.
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Other players targeted by Celtic in the summer of 2022
Iraqi defender Mohanad Jeahze was widely linked with Celtic that summer too, before eventually moving to MLS instead as the Hoops opted to sign Alexandro Bernabei.
Another Argentine, Francisco Ortega, was also linked. He is now a regular at Olympiacos.
Brazilian midfielder Vinicius Souza was a top target for Postecoglou. He moved to Espanyol instead, and has since played for Sheffield United and Wolfsburg.
Malick Thiaw was rumoured as a potential replacement for Christopher Jullien – he completed a £30 million move to Newcastle ahead of this season.
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