Celtic could land as much as £10.2 million from the sale of Jeremie Frimpong, while the Ibrox side are borrowing money to cover future transfer income

The Record this evening is reporting that former Celtic player Jeremie Frimpong could be set to leave Bayer Leverkusen in the summer for a bumper transfer fee.

The former Celtic player’s stock has soared during his time at Bayer Leverkusen, culminating in winning a Bundesliga title. along with the DFB Pokal in the 2023/24 season.

Frimpong has been ever-present at right back for the Bundesliga Champions, but it’s looking likely he’ll move on to bigger things once the season concludes.

Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona are all reported to be interested in the Dutch international.

Which is great news for Celtic.

If a bidding war starts between these clubs for Frimpong, who knows what the final transfer fee will be for him?

Leverkusen currently value him at about £34 million, meaning that due to Celtic’s 30% sell on clause, the club could make as much as £10.2 million from his sale.

And that’s if he goes for transfer the fee he’s valued at.

Anything more, and Celtic stand to make more.

Whatever way you look at it, it will be an excellent piece of business by Celtic, despite the fact a lot of people were scratching their heads when he left the club suddenly back in 2021.

It’s estimated Celtic made £10 million for Frimpong back then.

The fact that they could make more out of the sell on clause they negotiated for him is smart business from any perspective.

I know I give the board a hard time more often than not, but credit where it’s due on this piece of business.

It once again shows the sharpness of our transfer dealings, especially when it comes to selling our top assets.

We know that the board are excellent at this aspect of transfer dealings, it’s how they deal with player purchases, or lack thereof, that gets us wound up most of the time.

Contrast that to the story coming out of Ibrox earlier today, and it really shows the level that Celtic operate at in comparison to them.

In fact there really is no comparison at all.

This is reflected in the story in the Record this morning, I’ll let the headlines do the talking:

Rangers loan against future transfer fees sees 2 clubs namechecked in documents over outstanding payments

The Ibrox side have taken out an unspecified amount with industry leaders MacQuarie Bank

Where to start with that?

Things are so bad over there, all while the yanks are doing their due diligence of course, that they had to take a loan out against transfer fees owed to them by FC Twente and Parma for the transfers of Sam Lammers and Antonio Colak.

Of course, Graeme Young, the writer of this piece, made out like it was a thing of nothing.

Stating that MacQuarie Bank are “Industry leaders” when it comes to things like this.

And because Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Southampton have done it in the past, it’s all tickedy boo.

Nothing to fret about here.

That’s all fine and dandy, but EPL clubs like that have huge revenue streams and they aren’t hemorrhaging on an annual basis to the extent the Ibrox club are.

It’s extremely telling how bad the cash flow issues are over at Ibrox when in the same week they had another share issue, and then applied for a loan for an “unspecified amount” relating to these two transfers .

Below is the reasoning for the loan:

And now – in a report lodged to Companies House – it appears FC Twente and Parma are the clubs who R*****s are awaiting payments from and sparked the decision to seek the cash now. The clubs, named as ‘FCT’ and ‘PC’ in the paperwork, have both been involved in deals in recent years. The Eredivisie side struck an agreement to sign Sam Lammers in the summer of 2024, while Antonio Colak headed to Italy in the summer of 2023.

They obviously cannot wait for these payments.

If alarm bells weren’t already ringing all over 49ers Enterprises, they should be now!

When you consider that previous chairman John Bennett refused point blank to take out “high interest” loans like this with banks like MacQuarie Bank, this seems like a forced shift in attitude from current hierarchy at the Ibrox club.

I leave you with what Bennett had to say about taking loans out with institutes like MacQuarie:

We have had numerous approaches, including in November. It is so interesting, they come to you and it could be equity, it could be family offices, it could be banks such as MacQuarie Bank and they are active in the football space. They can’t touch our terms, What I have been saying and a number of us have been saying is ‘Ok, those are interesting approaches’. I can tell you that one of them was at 13 per cent per annum.

We’re not paying that. We are no longer paying nine, we are no longer paying eight, six is the new benchmark. If those providers can come in and beat that at two levels – a lower coupon, because six is the new benchmark, and we have driven the cost of funding down to six.

I think that is one of the lowest numbers in the whole of football in Britain for loans. But also on security. I can assure you they want a whole lot more security and a higher coupon.

That speaks for itself.

You wouldn’t be taking a loan like that out unless you were really badly stuck.

I have no doubt that Paddy Stewart wishes he operated a trading model like Celtic.

Where we can make huge money from a player we sold 4 years ago.

That’s the difference between us and them.

And it’s why I think the Yanks will run a mile!

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