THE transfer window has come and gone with some frantic activity at Celtic right up until the midnight deadline.
Three players were brought in, two were sold and three went on loan, as CQN reported in the early hours of the morning.
Meanwhile, Boli Bolingoli remains a Celtic player, under contract until May 31 2023 following his £3million arrival from Vienna Rapid in July 2019 as a replacement for £25million Arsenal-bound Kieran Tierney.
The Belgian played a mere handful of first-team minutes for the Hoops during a cameo appearance in the 1-1 draw with Kilmarnock at Rugby Park on August 9, which the best new football betting site had nailed on as a Celtic win. A day later, it was discovered the defender had made a hush-hush trip to high-risk Spain for break without the permission or knowledge of the club.
DOWN AND OUT…Boli Bolingoli still has almost two years to run on his Celtic contract.
He ignored government quarantine protocols upon his return and trained with his team-mates at Lennoxtown before being named as a substitute against the Ayrshire outfit.
Celtic felt the brunt of the consequences when Holyrood authorities and SPFL league bosses condemned the inexplicable actions of their player and two vital early-season games against Aberdeen and St Mirren were cancelled. A suspension followed for the errant Bolingoli.
He was offloaded to Turkish champions Istanbul Basaksehir where he made 12 league appearances, but sustained an injury near the end of the campaign and was returned to Parkhead with the club opting not to make the move permanent.
The full-back was taken along with his colleagues and Olivier Ntcham to the Hoops’ pre-season training base in Wales, but has not played a single minute of competitive action and it’s clear he has no place in Ange Postecoglou’s plans. Like the French midfielder, the only hope for Bolingoli could be having his contract scrapped which, of course, will be costly for the Parkhead side.
TURK IT OR LEAVE IT…Boli Bolingoli poses with the Istanbul Basaksehir shirt after agreeing a loan deal last summer.
They will have to forfeit any possibility of recouping some of their initial transfer outlay while it will also cost them to pay up all – or part – of the player’s terms.
Postecoglou was forced to play right-sided Josip Juranovic at left-back at Ibrox on Sunday which created an imbalance in the team’s structure.
Adam Montgomery provided the width of that flank when he came on as an 85th-minute substitute, but the team just ran out of time in attempting to get the point they deserved. Bolingoli was nowhere to be seen in Govan and was not considered for a place among the seven substitutes.
The Celtic manager has stated he is looking forward to working with his staff once the guessing games concerning the likes of Odsonne doiuard and Ryan Christie came to an end. He knows the players he will be able to utilise in the vitally important months ahead.
Bolingoli will not be among that number. The problem for Postecoglou and the Hoops hierarchy is what to do now with the Belgian since no-one was tempted to make even a loan move in the August window.
