Sale of Napoli full-back could pave the way for Tierney move
The future of Celtic defender Kieran Tierney is expected to become clearer this week, thanks to events in Italy.
Napoli manager Carlo Ancelotti has admitted he is a big fan of the 21-year-old Scot and wants to sign him.
However, in order to step up the Serie A outfit’s interest to a concrete bid approaching the £ 25- million Celtic value their player at, the Italian wants to first bring in funds by selling his current leftback, Mario Rui.
The Portuguese has been told he can go and a transfer in the £15-20m range to either Torino or Benfica – the player’s preference – is set to go through in the next few days.
That will then free up Ancelotti to gazump Tierney’s long- term admirers, Arsenal, whose £15m bid was rejected out of hand.
While the London giants remain keen, their failure to follow up with improved terms tells the story of a club trying to juggle several potential deals at the same time, and Napoli may be able to take advantage.
It is situation Celtic can afford to be relaxed about, as they completed the £ 3m buy of Boli Bolingoli-mbombo.
The 24- year- old Belgian, a cousin of Romelu Lukaku, says he is happy to compete with Tierney for the jersey or step up right away, as the situation dictates.
And he is not short of biggame experience, having played in the Champions League group stages with his old club, FC Brugge.
“I have two feelings about that time,” he said as he looked back to the 2016- 17 campaign.
“There was a bad feeling because we finished up with zero points, losing our games to Porto, Copenhagen and Leicester City.
“But there was a good feeling as well, because it is always a victory for every player to play in the Champions League.
“It is amazing to have that experience in my career.
“Ev e r y b o dy loves th e Champions League and I can’t wait to have that chance again with Celtic.
“Hopefully, we can do something great.
“I was very young the first time and hadn’t played much first-team football.
“At that moment, it wasn’t easy to get involved because we had a lot of good players.
“I was young and needed to wait until my moment came.
“But now I have become a man. My moment is here and hopefully I can play at the top European level with Celtic.
“I also played against Manchester United at Old Trafford in a play-off in 2015, which was a great experience.”
Mb o m b o is e sp e c ia l l y excited about the prospect of being involved in an Old Firm derby in the coming season.
“The Celtic games against Rangers are famous,” he said.
“I have played in some derby matches with Rapid Vienna against Au s t r i a Vienna.
“They can be pretty crazy, but I think that over here they are even more crazy!
“This is a new challenge for me and I am happy that I have made this choice.”