LOUIS MUNTEANU CELTIC BID: WHAT THE S*N AND THE DAILY RECORD DIDN’T TELL YOU
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 12 hours ago
- 3 min read
Celtic have done well in recent years by entering into less-fancied league markets for players.
However, an unfortunate side-effect of the recent sale of Nicholas Kuhn is that clubs now know Celtic have cash to burn and a need to bring in attacking talent.
CFR Cluj of Romania seem, at first glance, to be the latest club to jump on the same train as the likes of Rapid Vienna and Royal Antwerp, by demanding ridiculous fees for players Celtic are interested in. In Cluj’s case, though, there’s a bit more to it than that.
Louis Munteanu Celtic Bid Rejected, But It Wasn’t a “Lowball” Offer
Reports this morning suggest that Celtic had a bid in the range of 6.9 million pounds rejected for Louis Munteanu. Celtic's latest target was Cluj’s top scorer last season. Much like previously reported Celtic target Giuseppe Ambrosino, Munteanu impressed at the recent European Under-21 Championships.
Ironically enough the two players actually faced off directly, in a group stage game that, ultimately, ended in a 1-0 win for Italy.
However, Munteanu’s profile and level of experience, is a bit further along than that of Ambrosino. The 23-year-old managed 25 goals in in 47 games across all competitions for Cluj last season. He joined the Romanian league club after 4 years in Italy with Fiorentina.
Despite early encouraging signs, he never quite managed to hold down a first team place in Florence, and, after two loan spells back in Romania with Farul Constanta, he returned to his homeland permanently for around 2.5 million pounds last summer.
From Cluj’s perspective it’s only fair that they want to make a significant profit if indeed they do sell their best player this summer.
However, from Celtic’s viewpoint, 6.9 million for a player who ultimately couldn’t cut it in Serie A, but looks good in a lesser European league (a league with a similar profile to Scotland’s own) probably seems like a reasonable offer.
However, statements coming from the Cluj board this morning suggest that the offer is well below their own perceived valuation of the player. Owner Ioan Varga reportedly wants something closer to 12 million pounds for the player.
This is a, frankly, ridiculous asking price for a player from the Romanian League. However, whilst the likes of the Daily Record and The S*n try to frame this as yet another lowball offer from Celtic, it’s not that simple.
When Munteanu joined Cluj last summer, Fiorentina retained 50% of his ownership rights. In other words, they’ll get half the fee for wherever Munteanu goes next.
Were Celtic only dealing with the Romanian club, it’s possible something in the range of 6 to 8 million pounds would be enough to get this deal done. That would still be a massive profit for Cluj, and a very high fee for any player coming out of the Romanian League.
I suspect Fiorentina may have power of veto over any such deal. As such, they are probably still holding out that those rumors of interest from clubs in France and Spain in the player develop into concrete offers.
The fact that this aspect of Munteanu’s contract has gone unreported in the Scottish press means, maybe, Celtic aren’t aware of it either. I would hope not though, as it’s literally on the player’s own profile page on Wikipedia and several other easily accessible online resources.
Co-ownership deals like this were actually banned in Italian football in 2015, as part of a wider crackdown on corruption.
However, since the player no longer players in Italy, Italian FA rules don’t apply.
Whether Celtic are aware of this or not, the fact remains that 6.9 million was a good opening offer for a player of Munteanu’s calibre. Don’t let any of the tabloid rags tell you otherwise.
Whether another Louis Munteanu Celtic bid goes in or not probably depends on whether Fiorentina can drum up genuine interest from any of the Big 5 leagues in Europe.
As we saw from the Isak Jansson situation last week, a player’s true value doesn’t really matter if you can find someone rich enough, or gullible enough to pay the crazy price being demanded by the parent club.