Clermont president Ahmet Scheafer has pointed out that Adrian Grbic still has two years left on his contract, amid speculation linking Celtic and Rangers with the prolific striker, while speaking to France Bleu.
Considering that both Odsonne Edouard and Alfredo Morelos are being linked with a host of clubs south of the border, the Scottish Premiership giants may be forced to enter the market for a new number nine whether they want to or not this summer.
Grbic, an Austrian U21 ace who has been nicknamed ‘the new Juninho’ due to his staggering ability from a dead-ball, appears to be at the front of the queue.
TEAMtalk claimed that both Rangers and Celtic are admirers of the Ligue 1 goal-machine, although he won’t come cheap even in a market beset by financial uncertainty.
MaLigue2 claims that Grbic, who is also an alleged target for Crystal Palace and Brighton, is valued at a staggering £9 million. And with speculation rising, Clermont’s president has offered an indication as to why his 17-goal talisman is priced so highly.
“He still has two years of contract,” Scheafer says.
“A Bundesliga club and another at the bottom of the Premier League table, appeared in January with amounts that I had never seen before. (We rejected the bids) to preserve our ambition to go up to Ligue 1.”
With the French football season brought to a premature conclusion in controversial circumstances, Clermont’s good work appears to have gone to waste with Lorient and Lens, who finished first and second in Ligue 2, promoted to the top-flight in their stead.
As a result, it feels very unlikely that Grbic will stick around for another season in France’s second tier with so much interest on the other side of the Channel.
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