Jozo Simunovic has enjoyed an excellent start to the season and Scottish Premiership favourites Celtic cannot afford to sell him to Ligue 1.
Celtic are set to receive a £5 million bid from Lille for star centre-back Jozo Simunovic, according to the Scottish Sun.
It has been a somewhat turbulent transfer window for the Scottish Premiership champions and interest in Simunovic won’t exactly be well received, especially with the future of Kieran Tierney hanging in the balance too.
Celtic have already lost Dedryck Boyata and Filip Benkovic since winning their eighth successive league title and, with only Christopher Jullien arriving so far, they really can’t afford to part with the 24-year-old Croatian U21 international – even if he will miss the first two league games of the season through suspension.
The Scottish Sun claim that Lille, runners-up in Ligue 1 last season, have made contact with Celtic already and, by offering £5 million, will hand the Hoops a chance to make a slight profit on a player they bought from Dinamo Zagreb in 2015.
Manager Neil Lennon is desperate to keep Simunovic, however, and who can blame him given the defenders impressive displays during pre-season and the ongoing Champions League qualifiers?
Yet Lille could cash in on Nicolas Pepe, Rafael Leao and Adama Soumaoro in the next few weeks. If all three go, they could have around £100 million to play with. But can they really make an offer that Celtic simply cannot refuse?
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