[Link] Baba Diawara

Cant see celtic getting him now

CELTIC’S hopes of landing Baba Diawara have hit a major obstacle – £6million high.

The Maritimo striker has been on top of Neil Lennon’s shopping list for several months, and only a work permit issue prevented him moving to Parkhead in August after a £2m fee had been agreed between the Hoops and his Portuguese club, Maritimo.

Lennon has continued the pursuit of the Senegalese hitman (pictured), and recently flew to Portugal to check on the form which carried Diawara to the top of the Portuguese scoring charts.

But, Celtic have been joined in the hunt for the man who turned 24 today by several other clubs, including Chinese outfit Beijing Guoan, French clubs Monaco and Sochaux and German side Stuttgart, who have slapped a £5m offer on the table.

Maritimo have rejected this bid from the Bundesliga club, and believe they can raise the price even higher.

One director of the Madeira-based side said: “We have placed a £6m figure on Baba’s head, and expect to get it within the next few days.

“The more goals Baba scores, the higher his valuation.”

Diawara accepts he will be sold in this window, but must now wait to see who makes an offer his club are willing to accept.

He said: “I know there is a lot of interest in me, but I have confidence in the club president to make a good choice.”

Ironically, the striker Celtic did bring in as the summer window closed, Mo Bangura, has suffered another set back in his bid to finally make an impact at Parkhead.

He suffered an injury in training on Tuesday, and this looks like preventing him getting a rare start in Sunday’s Scottish Cup tie at Peterhead.

Heading into this window, Celtic always had strikers other than Diawara on their radar, including another man who was chased by the Hoops in the summer, Jay Bothroyd.

The free agent eventually accepted an offer to move to QPR, so that he could be near his son, who had just started at a school in the London area.

But the experienced striker now looks to be surplus to requirements at Loftus Road, and Celtic are reported to be interested in a loan move for the man who is currently earning £30,000 per week.

 

The funny thing is, he is one of the most prolific strikers in Europe this season, yet people are still so delusional to think he would even consider the SPL!

LAWL!

 

Think we had the chance late summer and blow it.

 

its not looking good i hope lenny has other targets and not bothroyd or any spl strikers

 

Rhodes

 

Things are looking bleak with the recent news and alleged targets

 

If this is indeed the case, the key thing is to move on as quick as possible. We should be ahead of the game in the transfer window, and hanging about waiting for somebody who is now 99% cert not to sign is damaging to our chances of getting some real quality in.

As soon as we can confirm these £5-6m bids, then forget Baba straight away.

On to the next...

 

Aye absolutely no chance now, which is a shame as he's exactly the type of striker we need.

Annoying to think we could've had Diawara and Damari in the summer for £4M combined whereas not even 6 months later it would cost about £10M to get both.

 

Damari still could be bought on the cheap. he has a £2.5m buy out clause. he's scored 11 in 16 this season with 3 Europa League goals in 6 matches to his name. i wouldn't mind falling back on him if Rhodes and Baba are no goers...which seems increasingly like they are.

 

Looks like were gonna miss out on Baba, which is shocking.
If not for the work permit, Lennon would have pulled off such a coup in getting him for 2 million.
If not Baba, Rhodes.

 

I can't see us getting Rhodes either. He will be high on the list of a lot of mid table Premiership clubs and even they have a lot more money to spend than we do.

 

We all get excited come the transfer window then our hopes and dreams are whipped away...Unfortunately Celtic won't be able to pick up most of their signing targets once there's a bidding frenzy unless they pay through the nose....if the £6m figure being bandied about is correct then we must move on...In my opinion It's an over inflated price to pay for Baba and i'd expect too rich for Celtic anyway...yes,he's playing well and has great potential to push on to greater things but i'd place him in the £4.5m bracket.
If by some miracle we land him i'd be delighted but somehow i think it's very unlikely.
Same goes for Rhodes,he's generating a lot of interest from other clubs too....it's a case of get in early or forget it!

 

We are 4 months late.

 

I would rather we just splurge and buy him while we sell deadwood like murphy, brown, blackman, bangura and mark wilson

 

Brown, the captain, is not 'deadwood'.

 

brown is club captain and has been pretty good since returning from injury, bangura hasnt been given a chance and as for blackman have you actually seen him play once?

 

Well he was considering it only a few months ago.... Still better than playing in China

LAWL !

 

Anything above £4m I'm afraid is out of our reach. If these reports of the £6M mentioned are true then we need to move on and act quickly in the transfer window because the less time left in the window the more teams pay for strikers

#Cough Carroll Cough#

 

no matter how much you don't like Brown, he isn't deadwood.

Bangura has just got here, give him a chance.

 

While he has not moved ,there is a lot of very imaginative rumours of fees quoted no club has bought him yet so i still think we have a chance ,i remember thinking we wouldnt get ledley ,mathews, keane , roy or robbie , so its not over till its over same with rhodes.