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Celtic are battling it out with Manchester City to sign Ecuadorian midfielder Jose Cifuentes, according to The Scottish Sun.
What’s the story?
Manager Neil Lennon has told supporters they can expect to see as many as six signings arrive at Celtic Park this summer as he looks to refresh the squad that has brought the club so much success in recent years.
One player the Hoops are looking at is Cifuentes, reckon The Scottish Sun.
The paper say that Lennon wants to strengthen his midfield and Cifeuntes, described as a “wonderkid”, fits the bill after he stood out at this summer’s U20s World Cup.
Said to be available for a fee of £2.5m, Celtic hope they can beat City to his signature by utilising more beneficial work permit rules in Scotland compared to England, with the Premier League champions likely having to loan him out to Spanish side Girona.
How does Neil Lennon turn his doubters into believers? The answer lies in the video below…
Cutting out the middle man
In recent years Celtic have worked extensively with Manchester City on a number of deals.
Loan moves for Jason Denayer and Patrick Roberts proved successful, going on to make 44 and 78 Celtic appearances respectively, while paying for players such as Dedryck Boyata and Olivier Ntcham has also been beneficial, with the latter recently picking up interest from FC Porto.
Most recently though the club landed Daniel Arzani on a two-season long loan, just days after the English club hoovered him up from Australian football.
It was a strange deal that suggests Man City see themselves as intermediaries, attracting young talents from around the world as assets before farming them out to European sides, without much intent to play them in their first-team.
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By exploiting a work permit advantage and landing Cifuentes, Celtic can go directly to the talent available rather than potentially dealing with Man City.
It’d be the first step towards ending a reliance on the English champions and prove to players and agents that Celtic should be their first port of call, rather than entering the mammoth City organisation.
It’s the kind of reputation Celtic need to build as they look to start making waves in Europe once again, having failed to get past the Europa League’s Round of 32 during their last four attempts.