When Celtic made the move for Elfsborg centre half Gustaf Lagerbielke back in August of 2023, many Hoops fans felt like we had potentially picked up our next defensive gem, but sadly hindsight shows that this definitely was not the case.

Signed for a reported £3 million, the 24 year old two capped Swedish international went on to only make six starting appearances for us, with a further four showings from the substitutes bench and for all intents and purposes that was the last we really saw of him at Parkhead. To put it into casino gaming parlance, he unfortunately blew 21 in online blackjack and it was sadly just one of those things.

After basically becoming a forgotten man, during the last summer transfer window he made the switch out to Dutch Eredivisie side FC Twente and he has impressed in his 13 starts and eight substitute appearances and if the speculation rumour mill is to be believed, they are now very interested in signing him on a permanent basis come the end of the current campaign.

With the second half of the season now fully underway, the player recently did a pretty wide ranging interview of his own and he admitted that he is also hoping that a permanent deal can be agreed between both sides come the summer as simply put, he has hardly had any contact from Celtic Park to check on his progress since he made the move, and he feels like he knows where he is not wanted.

It is probably safe to say that the educated guess is that ultimately come the summer a valuation on his services will be agreed by both clubs and from our point of view just getting him off the wage bill given he has another two and a half years left on his original deal would be an advantage, but we will be looking to at least break even on our original outlay. The only potential hiccup on any future negotiations here will simply be the fact that we did not include an obligated, or optional, buy clause in his initial loan deal.

That should really not prove to be a major concern though as it certainly sounds like there would be three willing parties wanting to push an agreement through here.

It is unfortunately just one of those transfer deals that does not work out for either the player or the buying club, but it happens quite regularly in the game and you just have to roll with it and move on as amicably as you can so relationships really do not deteriorate and get played out in a 24/7 media world.

To Lagerbielke’s credit, when he said he had not heard much from Celtic since his move, he also commented the club have their own priorities as does he, so it is not like he has chased to keep in contact either.

Some fans will not like the answer, but as I imagine it was a leading question, I think he handled it well.

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