‘Would’ve killed Celtic’; Chris Sutton feels club avoided disaster

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Chris Sutton believes Celtic avoided a potential disaster in the transfer window. The ex-Bhoys striker thinks things went well overall.

Chris Sutton has hailed an ‘excellent’ transfer window for Celtic on the Daily Record’s podcast. Sutton believes the club avoided disaster, in fact, and left themselves in a good place.

“When you think, Celtic got knocked out the Champions League by Ferencvaros, and when that happened alarm bells are ringing,” he said. “‘Will Celtic have to sell one of the big guns?’ ‘Will Celtic have to sell an Odsonne Edouard?’

“Selling Odsonne Edouard would’ve killed Celtic, it really would’ve done. When you strip everything back, they’ve got [Diego] Laxalt in on the left side, he comes with a decent reputation.

“Celtic are in a really good place.”

In total, Celtic brought in five players this summer. Albian Ajetic arrived from West Ham United, Vasilios Barkas from AEK Athens and David Turnbull from Motherwell permanently. Then Shane Duffy and Diego Laxalt joined on loan from Brighton and AC Milan respectively.

As for Edouard, the striker was reportedly in demand this summer. The Transfer Window Podcast, for one, claimed last month that Arsenal bid over £20m for the player.

It came to nothing in the end, however, and Edouard remains a Celtic player.

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It’s probably a bit far to say that losing Edouard would have ‘killed’ Celtic, but keeping the player is the highlight of their window. Last season’s top scorer is undoubtedly the club’s jewel and it’s understandable that clubs were interested.

How many 22-year-olds have bagged over 50 goals in the last two seasons, after all? Keeping him is a coup and, arguably, gives Celtic a better chance of retaining their trophies than any potential signing would have.