Celtic were reportedly considering making an approach for Sardar Azmoun – who would have cost them £10m.
Celtic have not broken their transfer record since paying £6 million for Coventry City striker John Hartson back in 2001.
However, there was a real chance that could have changed in the summer with the Scottish Sun reporting that 22-year-old Iranian international striker Sardar Azmoun was a name on Brendan Rodgers’ radar as he attempted to add more depth to his forward line.
The Rubin Kazan attacker, however, would have cost £10 million – a fee that reportedly had Celtic doubting whether or not they should do a deal. And, in hindsight, they probably made the right decision turning their attention towards highly-rated PSG loanee Odsonne Edouard instead.
Lucky escape?
Because Azmoun, who returned to former club Rubin Kazan in June after they triggered his buyout clause following two impressive seasons with Rostov, has hardly looked like a £10 million striker in the early weeks of the new season.
Azmoun, likened in some quarters to a certain Zlatan Ibrahimovic, has failed to score in nine league appearances in 2017/18 and has been trusted to play from the start on just two occasions. In his most recent outing, he failed to inspire a turnaround when brought off the bench with half an hour remaining in Rubin’s 1-0 home defeat to Ural on Sunday.
Therefore, his barren displays will not have Celtic wondering what might have been. In truth, Azmoun, who was linked with Liverpool and Everton last year (Liverpool Echo), has never been the most prolific of strikers having scored just 12 goals in 35 games for Rostov in two years.
Yet, goals in last season’s Champions League group stage against Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid ensured that Azmoun’s rather middling domestic form had been overlooked in the transfer market.
Though, on current form, he’s hardly worthy of taking John Harton’s transfer record.
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