As enough doors to fill a floor in a Premier Inn close on Celtic’s face, has another just opened up?
It is nearly a month since Joe Hart bowed out from club football as a Scottish Cup and Premiership champion – keeping a clean sheet at Hampden Park as Jack Butland blundered at the other end – and Celtic’s pursuit of a successor is still going on.
This week have brought about fresh links with Peter Vindahl and Newcastle United’s Martin Dubravka, the latter a man Brendan Rodgers has admired from afar for some time now.
But, as HITC reported on Tuesday, Celtic’s number one target could prove to be beyond the club’s financial means. Liverpool are expected to demand around £15 million for Coaimhin Kelleher. While Champions League qualification boosts Celtic’s coffers, Kelleher would command a club-record fee and then some.
Patrick Pentz, another linked with Parkhead, joined Brondby in a bargain deal from Bayer Leverkusen. Michael Zetterer also appears to be out of contention after signing a new contract with Werder Bremen. And while Trabzonspor are open to offers for captain Ugurcan Cakir, the Turk is in no rush to leave his beloved club.
So, with the cupboards becoming a little bare, the comments Horatiu Moldovan made to Romanian podcast Tare de tot cu Viorel Grigoroiu recently may be music to Rodgers’ ears.
Celtic still need a Joe Hart replacement
According to AgerPress, Celtic showed an interest in Moldovan during the January window. That was, however, until Spanish giants Atletico Madrid triggered the £650,000 release clause in his Rapid Bucharest contract.
But, after five months at the Wanda Metropolitano, Moldovan is already looking for a way out.
“I want to leave Atletico Madrid in the summer or winter,” Moldovan said bluntly. “I don’t know if I’ll leave now, because it depends on what I do at the Euros with Romania. It depends on the opportunities that arise.
“But I definitely want to leave to play.”
Cynics will argue that Moldovan should have seen this coming. Atletico have one of the finest shot-stoppers in football standing between the sticks in Jan Oblak. But still, Moldovan may have expected to feature at least once, left on the bench for every one of Atletico’s La Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League fixtures since his arrival.
Atletico Madrid ace opens door for transfer
“If a good team from a big league presents itself to me, then I want to go,” adds Moldovan, who will hope to be Romania’s first-choice at this summer’s European Championships. “We will see what offers appear.
“You can’t reject (the chance to sign for) Atletico. But I want to play.”
Another optioon that may present itself to Celtic is that of Vijlami Sinisalo. Like Moldovan, Sinisalo has an elite-level goalkeeper ahead of him in the pecking order in Aston Villa’s World Cup winner Emiliano Martinez.
And Sinisalo, who spent last season on loan at Exeter City in England’s third tier, would arrive at Celtic with the backing of the man he kept out of the starting XI.
“He’s wasting his time coming back to League One next year”, former Exeter team-mate Shaun MacDonald tells The Athletic. “I’ve said that openly and he agrees. He’s got a year left on his contract (at Aston Villa), so he would probably have to sign a new deal if he was going on loan again.
“I would say move to the Championship. (But) I saw stories about Celtic, so something like that would be great.”
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