Scottish Premiership champions Celtic paid £3m for Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo, is he going to replace Arsenal target Kieran Tierney.
Rapid Vienna might have earned £3 million when they sold left-back Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo to Celtic – but replacing the jet-heeled Belgian is clearly proving easier said than done.
The left-back became Celtic’s third signing of the summer in early July and he’s already made his debut in green and white, starting in the 3-1 Champions League qualifying win away at Sarajevo last week.
It remains to be seen whether Bolingoli-Mbombo will be Celtic’s first-choice left-back this season or merely a back-up. That all depends on whether Arsenal make a bid The Hoops cannot refuse for fans’ favourite Kieran Tierney.
But according to Rapid Vienna coach Dietmar Kuhbauer, the Austrian outfit should have done more to keep their star man – even if £3 million was probably too good to turn down.
“We worked so hard last season on a 3-5-2 system, but the loss of Boli Bolingoli has hurt us terribly. He would have raced up the left wing like a rocket in this system. He’s a massive loss,” Kuhbauer told Heute.
“And he is proving to be incredibly difficult to replace. Any time we want to look at a player, it seems his value goes up by hundreds of thousands because the selling club knows we have money.
“Boli has left a big hole in our team.”
Kuhbauer has, however, inadvertently shed light on why Celtic were so keen to bring Bolingoli-Mbombo in at Parkhead.
The Scottish Premiership champions want their full-backs to provide plenty of quality in the final third a la Tierney and the swashbuckling 24-year-old is sure to make a real impression thanks to his attack-minded style and rapid pace.
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