Sometimes, rumours appear then disappear very quickly, which often leads to many thinking there was nothing in them all along.
While that might be the case in certain cases, in others, there is truth to it, but a team simply said ‘no’.
That’s exactly what happened when a story appeared in June that Celtic were ‘in the running’ to sign then Nice left-back Romain Perraud.
The 22-year-old was wanted by a few clubs, including Neil Lennon’s side, and he eventually ended up going to newly promoted Stade Brestois for a fee of £1.8m.
He said: “Celtic and Dijon also made me offers. With Celtic, talks started at the start of the transfer window, but Nice didn’t want to hear anything about it, so they never came back for another attempt. That left Dijon and Brest. In the end, I chose Brest. I was seduced by the project and their pitch to me”.
That pitch included promising him game time throughout the season and an immediate good feeling with their director of football Grégory Lorenzi.
Celtic’s interest in the player will have likely come after being made aware they would likely end up selling Kieran Tierney this summer, who moved to Arsenal in August in exchange for £24.3m.
In the end, Neil Lennon and co. ended up settling for Rapid Vienna’s Boli Bolingoli to fill the void left by the Scot, as well as picking up Greg Taylor from Kilmarnock late on.
