Celtic manager Martin O’Neill’s wait for a goalkeeper is ongoing this summer, after Kasper Schmeichel announced his retirement.
The Scottish champions have shown interest in a few players, including UD Las Palmas’ Dinko Horkaš.
Celtic are keen on the Croatian and have been leading the race for the past two weeks or so.
Three days ago, Sport Witness covered claims from Spain that interest from Saudi Arabia is forcing O’Neill’s side to speed up their efforts.
At the weekend, we relayed news Celtic are confident of signing him for €5m. However, the Spanish club are standing firm and refusing to sell for less than €10m, also because of Saudi interest.
Celtic slow things down
Monday’s edition of La Provincia covers the latest episode of the saga involving Martin O’Neill’s side and Dinko Horkaš.
Horkaš has a €30m release clause and UD Las Palmas president Miguel Ángel Ramírez has set a lower price of €10m. Sources close to the Scottish club claim they are willing to only offer €5.5m.
This clearly doesn’t please the Spanish club, who are open to further lowering the request from €10m to €7m.
Confirmation of lack of agreement
As of now, Celtic and the Spanish club haven’t found an agreement for the Croatian’s transfer.
The latter’s manager, Rubén de la Barrera, confirmed this by handing the stopper minutes in the pre-season friendly defeat to Al-Ittihad on Saturday.
The newspaper also points out the Saudi media hasn’t mentioned any interest from the country in Dinko Horkaš.
It suggests Celtic face no Middle East threat and this may be the reason for refusing to meet UD Las Palmas’ request for now.
La Provincia state Las Palmas will keep him unless there’s a ‘satisfactory offer’, which is at least €7m. If not, the 27-year-old will continue at least until the January 2027 window.
Time will soon tell whether this is Las Palmas’ pressure tactic or their genuine stance.
