Gustaf Lagerbielke

Could be worse could have a serious eyelash injury like Nawrocki

 

Brendan Rodgers admits Gustaf Lagerbielke is set for a Celtic exit in the summer window, writes Michael Gannon from the USA.

The Swedish defender was part of the Hoops squad that returned from their American tour yesterday but only featured from the bench in the three wins Stateside. Lagerbielke – who was a £3million capture from Elfsborg 12 months ago – came close to leaving for Lecce on loan last January, but Rodgers was forced to pull the plug after injuries to centre backs Cameron Carter-Vickers and Stephen Welsh

Carter-Vickers and Liam Scales have been Celtic ’s first choice pairing while £4m Maik Nawrocki did not travel to the States after suffering a hamstring injury at the beginning of pre-season. Rodgers is understood to be looking at recruiting another centre half but Lagerbielke is likely to be allowed to leave. Rodgers said: “It just all depends. Gus has shown a terrific attitude. He didn’t get so much game time last season but he’s got his head down.

He had the chance to go on loan in January but we needed to keep him due to the injuries we had in that position. But he’s worked very hard over pre-season and we’ll see what happens. You see the players are happy and working well, but all players want to play. If they can’t get the game time with us, they may look elsewhere. In this moment he’s working very hard and when is asked, he comes in and does well.”

 

It’s time to do right buy him and let him go. Get back what we can for him and move on.

 

He'll be gone.

Hopefully no a loan..

Need to start shifting a load of the deadwood..

 

Fare thee well, sweet prince x

 

Think he’s had a fairly good attitude all things considered. Hope he gets a good move and we get some money back from him. Need to start shifting as much players that aren’t in our plans as we can

 

His celtic career has just been utterly bizarre

 

You have to give the lad credit considering how big a mistake the move has been for him. He has not sulked but got on with things in training and like you say at this point hopefully he gets a decent move to Italy and it goes well for him and hopefully we can maybe get back the money or close to it that we spent on him.

 

One of those players you wished it worked out better for him. Attitude has been superb you can tell he enjoys it here from his instagram posts etc

 

Nothing against him and can't fault his effort but it's been a strange signing.

 

£2m plus a sell on would be good business. He goes over there and kills it, he could move onto one of the bigger clubs for £15m plus. Lecce, the team who were wanting him last season, just sold their main centre back to Fiorentina for £15m.

Lower fee I'd be happy just to get him out the door but keep a wee 20% deal in the profit of the next sale.

 

Horrific signing. I’m not sure if he has much ability at all but he’s so scarily unsuited to Celtic and the way we play. Genuinely miraculous that we held on for that win at Ibrox at the start of last season with a back 4 of Ralston Lager Scales and Bernabei finishing the game. Scales was an absolute colossus and Lagerbielke was a total bombscare. I knew there and then he wasn’t to be trusted. Good luck to the guy all the same

 

Think he could have been alright next to a rapid CB like Starfelt TBH. His passing was a bit erratic; but I could see that with games he'd be a good passer. But our defence already lacks pace as it is, so I can understand why we didn't play him TBH.

 

Mind he got a clean sheet in a win at Ibrox?

Superb thing to have to your name as a Celtic player even if you didn't do much else.

Wish him all the best.

 

GUSTAF LAGERBIELKE has declined a move to Champions League hopefuls Malmo, according to reports in his homeland.

The Swedish outfit currently sit top of the Allsvenskan and go into a huge UCL qualifier tonight against PAOK


They recently sold Canadian centre half Derek Cornelius to Marseille for £3.7m - with Expressen reporting that they were keen to recruit Lagerbielke as a replacement.

They've brought in centre half Colin Rosler from Mjallby AIF since, but Lagerbielke was their first choice.

But the player TURNED DOWN the move back to Sweden as he didn't want to return to his home league.

Expressen also reports that several clubs in the English Championship want to loan Lagerbielke


Some other top Scandinavian clubs are investigating the possibility of buying the player

Lagerbielke has previously been linked with Hellas Verona, Parma, Lecce, Genoa, Udinese and Aberdeen.

The centre-back's contract with Celtic runs until the summer of 2028.

He made ten appearances in all for the Parkhead side last season - including an Old Firm start at Ibrox.

He also bagged a famous winning goal in the Champions League.

Lagerbielke has previously represented IF Elfsborg, Västerås SK, Degerfors IF and Sollentuna FK.

 

Is he really as bad as Rodgers makes out? He obviously sees him more than us but he's had zero time to settle in and show what he is capable of. One of our strangest signings I can remember in a long time

 

The general consensus is that he's actually a good defender but because he's very slow, he just doesn't suit our style of play and high line.

I've got no doubt he would go to a decent team in Italy, who play far deeper and more defensively and look very good. He's not a terrible player by any stretch of the imagination.

 

See given he is refusing to go back to Sweden on loan, he must have other offers or be expecting them as he will be wanting out to play knowing he has no route to our first team.

 

Yeah, agreed. Definitely think he wants to go to Italy. He seemed genuinely gutted that deal fell through in January.