No Kasper Dolberg ‘Kick In The Teeth’ Of Celtic Fans Says Ex-Attacker | OneFootball

Francois Nel/Getty Images

Former Hibernian attacker Tam McManus believes that Celtic fans will be hugely disappointed by how the club were in talks of signing a player of the quality of Kasper Dolberg but ended up bringing in Kelechi Iheanacho.

Celtic’s transfer strategy did not impress the Bhoys faithful this summer and the club also left some deals for their key positions hanging until very late in the window.

The centre forward position was one of the areas of the pitch they needed to bolster and they pursued a deal for Danish international Dolberg.

On deadline day they held talks with Anderlecht regarding a fee, but they were reluctant to meet Anderlecht’s asking price, which gave Ajax an opportunity to get in the race and manage to snatch Dolberg away from them.

Dolberg’s move to Ajax forced Celtic to look elsewhere and in the end they managed to agree a one-year deal with free agent Iheanacho, who Rodgers has experience of working with in the past.

McManus believes that Iheanacho is a player with a good pedigree but pointed out that the 28-year-old has not done a lot in the last few seasons.

He is of the opinion that Celtic fans will be gutted after being linked with a player of the calibre of Dolberg and then the club ended up signing Iheanacho as a free agent.

“I think pedigree-wise he has got a good pedigree, but the last couple of seasons he hasn’t done a lot”, McManus said on PLZ Soccer (6:19).

“He went to Middlesbrough on loan.

“You speak to a few Middlesbrough fans; they were not enamoured about him either, so I think it is a real risk.

“I think it is a real kick in the teeth for the Celtic fans when you look at the possibility of getting Kasper Dolberg in for £8m, £9m, a fantastic pedigree, who scored goals at a very, very high level for Ajax, Leipzig.

“Then you go to Iheanacho, no disrespect, to a free transfer, who has just been released from Sevilla, so I think it is a real comedown for a lot of Celtic supporters.”

The Celtic new boy has not scored more than five goals in the league in his last four seasons and his contract was terminated by Sevilla after he failed to impress and made only eleven appearances for them.