Got Soro instead: Celtic once wanted to sign a £27m star in the...

Head coach of Celtic Brendan Rodgers had a lot on his plate during the summer transfer window, having to supervise several

changes to his playing roster.

Before the August deadline, there was a lot of movement in and out of Parkhead. Matt O’Riley’s transfer to Brighton & Hove Albion,

a Premier League team, was the most significant departure.

To create room for a plethora of new recruits, a number of players from Glasgow were let go, including Tomoki Iwata, Gustaf

Lagerbielke, and Mikey Johnston.

The board’s overwhelming confidence in Rodgers was demonstrated when they broke the club transfer record to acquire Belgium

international Arne Engels from Augsburg for an alleged £11 million.

In order to provide the management more choices throughout the pitch before the summer transfer window closes, they also added

Adam Idah, Paulo Bernardo, Alex Valle, Luke McCowan, and Auston Trusty.

The Hoops will be hoping for better luck in that area than they did with the arrival of Ismaila Soro back at the beginning of 2020.

Engels, Bernardo, and McCowan have all arrived to contend for a starting slot in the middle of the park.

How much Celtic paid for Ismaila Soro

Prior to the second half of the 2019–20 season, it was claimed that the Scottish powerhouses paid out over £2 million to buy the

central midfield player from Israeli team Bnei Yehuda.

When he signed by Neil Lennon to a contract that would end in the summer of 2024, he was regarded as a tough-tackling

midfielder who could control the ball in tight spaces.

It was also disclosed that the club’s strong ties to Dudu Dahan, the player’s agent, aided them in negotiating a contract for the young

Ivorian.

The young player only appeared once in the second half of that season, in the SFA Cup, before making 19 appearances in the

Scottish Premiership in 2020–21.

As you can see in the table above, Soro was an average performer in the middle of the park for the Hoops in those 19 outings, as he

was only directly involved in two goals and barely won the majority of his physical duels.