Sport: Celtic, Rangers and Hearts in deadline day deals
● Welsh international left out at Cardiff arrives at Ibrox on season-long loan and looks forward to ‘massive derby games’
Celtic have completed the season-long loan signing of French striker Odsonne Edouard from Paris Saintgermain with an option to purchase him on a permanent deal from their Champions League rivals next summer.
The 19-year-old, a prolific scorer for his country at youth international level, arrived in Glasgow last night and will be formally unveiled by the Scottish champions at a media conference today.
The transfer deadline day deal saw Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers, who travelled to Paris last week to initiate the move for Edouard, bolster his striking options for the forthcoming Champions League group stage campaign which will see his squad face PSG, Bayern Munich and Anderlecht.
Uefa regulations mean that Edouard, who will provide competition up front for Leigh Griffiths and Moussa Dembele, will be able to play against his parent club in the tournament. Celtic kick off their Group B campaign at home to PSG on 12 September.
“I am absolutely delighted to be joining Celtic, one of the world’s truly great football clubs, and I can’t wait to wear the famous Celtic jersey,” Edouard told the official Celtic website.
“I am really looking forward to meeting my new team-mates and we will work hard together to bring our fans as much success as possible.”
A product of the Paris Saintgerman youth academy, helping their elite side reach the Uefa Youth League final last year where they lost to Chelsea, edouardw as loaned to Toulouse last season.
He scored just once in 17 appearances for Toulouse and his spell at the club was cancelled in March this year following his involvement in an airgun shooting incident from a car which injured a pedestrian. He received a suspended four-month prison sentence for the offence.
Edouard became Celtic’s fifth signing of the summer transfer window, following the permanent deals for Jonny Hayes, Kundai Benyu and Olivier Ntcham along with this week’s return of Manchester City winger Patrick Roberts on a season-long loan.
Transfer deadline day also saw Rangers make their 11th signing of the summer with Welsh international leftback Declan John arriving on a season-long loan from Cardiff City. As the 22-yearold arrived, there was another departure from Ibrox as striker Joe Dodoo moved to English League One club Charlton Athletic on loan until January.
Rangers failed, however, to strike a deal to sign Jamie Walker from Hearts.
Declan John believes his move to Rangers can revitalise a career which he admits has stalled in recent years.
The Welsh international, who operates at left-back or wing-back, became the Ibrox club’s 11th signing of the summer transfer window when he joined them from Cardiff City on a season-long loan yesterday.
John made his first-team breakthrough at the Welsh club as a teenager during the 2013-14 campaign in the Premier League. But he has struggled to hold down a regular place in the Cardiff side since then, with previous loan moves to Barnsley and Chesterfield.
The 22-year-old, who was informed by current Cardiff manager Neil Warnock that he will not feature in his plans this season, jumped at the opportunity to make his latest temporary move to Scottish football.
“I went into the Premier League at the age of 18, and you don’t really expect to get the call-up for that, and our first game was against West Ham which was massive for me,” said John.
“Then, I managed to do well and stay in the team for more or less the rest of that season. There were different managers that came in, so my career I think has stalled a little at the minute, but hopefully I can kick on from here. And what better team to do that at than Rangers? This is such a massive club, and as soon as I heard Rangers were in for me, it was a ‘yes’ straight away.
“I don’t think I was playing enough games (at Cardiff ) and getting the games I needed. But Rangers are such a massive club, and coming up here and hopefully doing that will hopefully be good for me.
“I’m 22, and I need to go out and play games at this stage. I’ve not played so many games in the last year or two, so to come up here and do that is only going to be good for me.”
John will join Pedro Caixinha’s squad for training today as he looks to get up to speed in time for a possible debut against Dundee at Ibrox on 9 September.
“I haven’t really played that much football (this season),” he told Rangers TV. “There was pre-season and many games, but they were just for fitness, so for me to get back into the footballing world and to do it with such a massive club is going to be great for me.
“Perhaps it’s maybe worked out in a better way. We haven’t got a game this Saturday, so I will have a full week of training and getting used to the new surroundings and to the boys.
“Football is crazy, especially around the last few days of the transfer window, but, as I said, as soon as I heard Rangers were in it was a ‘yes’ straight away.
“It has been a bit of a mad few days. I got the phone call on Tuesday night, had to fly up on the Wednesday and finally got it all sorted today (Thursday).
“It (Ibrox) is amazing. I’ve never seen a stadium which looks so compact and it’s just brilliant. When you’re getting 50,000 people and the stadium is a sell-out, you can only be happy with that.
“It’s going to be an amazing time for me and I’m sure I will enjoy it. I’ve only really seen Rangers on TV and I know there is a massive derby up here, so I’m looking forward to hopefully playing in those sorts of games.”