The saga surrounding Stefan De Vrij’s renewal at Lazio continues to drag on, and with it comes the inevitable ‘replacement’ suggestions, with the Serie A side bracing themselves for their star’s potential exit in the summer.
Around a month ago, Corriere dello Sport suggested that Celtic’s Jozo Simunovic could be an option should the Dutch centre-back move elsewhere, and they’re sticking by that.
On Wednesday, the same newspaper state the Celtic defender is an alternative to Porto’s Diego Reyes, who appears to be Lazio’s number one target to replace De Vrij.
The former Croatia U21’s profile is said to be what Igli Tare, the club’s director of football, is looking for, yet we’ve got a feeling the same problems as last time will be a hindrance.
In January, we explained Simunovic might be a bit expensive for Lazio in the summer considering he’d only recently signed a new contract at Celtic Park until 2021, and if De Vrij leaves on a free, they won’t exactly be getting money to spend on a new centre-back.
Their best bet would therefore be to sell another player for a considerable amount (like Felipe Anderson or Sergej Milinkovic-Savic), and then spend the money from that on getting a new centre-back and whoever they sold.
Either way, the Celtic man is still on their list, and he’s likely to be a recurring name over the coming months.
Brendan Rodgers will have his guard up.
