Scottish Premiership champions Celtic signed Elyounoussi on loan from Premier League Southampton despite interest from Jonathan Woodgate’s Boro.
Mohamed Elyounoussi turned down an offer from Middlesbrough before he joined Celtic on loan from Southampton, according to VG.
It’s fair to say this signing came like a bolt from the blue. Just one year after he joined The Saints from Basel in an eye-watering £16 million deal, as reported by the BBC, Norway international Elyounoussi was heading north of the border to join a club he hadn’t even been linked with in the media.
After a nightmare debut season at St Mary’s which resulted in no goals, no assists and just eight Premier League starts, Elyounoussi jumped at the chance to join the dominant force of Scottish football – so much so that he rejected offers from what some would describe as a far superior and more competitive division.
VG claims that an explosive 25-year-old attacker who ripped Manchester City apart in the Champions League last year turned down the chance to join Middlesbrough on loan.
As has been reported previously, Leeds United were interested too but even the chance to learn under the enigmatic Marcelo Bielsa wasn’t enough to turn Elyounoussi’s gaze away from Parkhead.
Despite introducing a more attacking, free-flowing style since replacing the arch pragmatist Tony Pulis, new Boro boss Jonathan Woodgate has struggled to get his side scoring.
They have hit the net just seven times in six games and Elyounoussi could have been the kind of unpredictable attacking force capable of winning games on his own – if he managed to rediscover that brilliant Basel form, of course.
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