Player says he was ‘well advanced’ to sign for Celtic, but they wouldn’t pay up €10m

Adrien Trebel continues to be an important player for Anderlecht this season, but things could have quite easily been different.

Joining from Standard Liege in January 2017, the midfielder did enough at Anderlecht to impress several other clubs and they came calling in the last summer window.

One of those was Celtic, and Trebel has been quizzed on the situation by HLN.

The Belgian newspaper put it to the 27 year old that Hertha Berlin, Celtic and Porto had been interested in him, and he answered: “I even had a personal agreement with Porto, I was also well advanced with the other teams you mentioned, but nobody wanted to pay the asking price. I’m at peace with it.”

That asking price was €10m, report HLN, and seemingly a figure Brendan Rodgers’ side were unwillingly to reach.

Contradicting the line of questioning, Trebel was then asked why he stayed, and responded: “I wanted stability. You know what you’re losing here, but not what you win over there. The coach and their chairman, even on vacation, we kept constant contact, they convinced me of their project. By the way, Celtic and Porto are nice clubs, but it’s not an improvement compared to Anderlecht.”

Portuguese champions Porto, who play against teams like Benfica and Sporting and average more than 40K, compared to Anderlecht’s less than half of that, may have something to say about that, as would Celtic fans.

It’s clear if the clubs mentioned had hit the €10m figure then Trebel would have left, hence him reaching a personal agreement to do so.