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The ‘news’ was music to everyone’s ears, for a few hours.
Manchester City’s centre-back was one of Celtic’s best players last year in the Hoops shirt and at just 20-years of age, he could be returning to Celtic, if they can secure Champions league and both parties are interested.
That’s according to Belgian football journalist Sven Claes, who has said he will go on loan again, with several big clubs interested, but Celtic are not an option for the Belgian.
@TheDogzBawz @City_Watch @Paulmcc67 Celtic aren’t an option anymore for Denayer. #MCFC #CelticFC
— Sven Claes (@svenclaes) August 17, 2015
Denayer had hoped to make a push into the Manchester city first-team this season and had a fantastic preseason that looked to have set him up nicely to play alongside fellow Belgian Vincent Kompany.
Although that hasn’t materialised and with Nicolas Otamendi seemingly on his way to Manchester City, it will only push the young Belgian further down the pecking order, who has aspirations of making Belgium’s Euro 2016 squad, should the qualify.
If Van Dijk were to leave Celtic, Denayer could have paired up with former City defender Dedryck Boyata, who signed for Celtic in June for a fee of about £1.5 million.
It seems like Celtic will have to break the bank in order to strengthen their team further at the back.