Haissem Hassan to Celtic now dead in the water as big hitters Olympique de Marseille enter the race for his signature
Celtic can forget about signing Haissem Hassan now that Marseille have entered the race for his signature...
Eric Knott Well, that’s the end of that then.
Celtic can forget about signing Haissem Hassan from Oviedo.
Olympique de Marseille have now entered the race to sign the Egyptian winger, with Hassan declaring the French south coast club to be his favoured destination.
This makes sense because of Hassan’s French roots.
He was born in Paris, and began his senior playing career with French side Châteauroux.
Prior to that he had youth stints at Porte de Bagnolet and Paris FC.
Moving to a club like Marseille would meet the ambitions of a player who grew up playing in the French system.
When a club with the spending power of Les Olympiens enters the race, Celtic – with their dithering and farting style of negotiations – can forget about competing.
The thoughts of Michael Nicholson trying to compete with Marseille CEO Alessandro Antonello in all of this makes me cringe.
Appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Olympique de Marseille in June 2025, Alessandro Antonello has previously held positions within the management of PUMA Italy, the San Siro stadium, and most recently Inter Milan.
Nicholson can’t compete with an individual like that.
Our ‘sports lawyer’, who worked for a ‘leading law firm’ would be way out of his depth here.
So, bearing that much in mind, I think we can resign ourselves to the fact this pursuit is over.
When the player himself declares it’s his favoured destination, then it’s definitely over:
🚨 Haissem Hassan 🇪🇬 a refusé les offres de certains clubs et privilégie l’OM !
— BeOM (@Be_OM13) August 5, 2026
Le joueur et le club marseillais sont tombés d’accord après quelques semaines de discussions ! 🤝
En cas de ventes de joueurs côté OM, le dossier se débloquerait !
🗞 @nordinealisaid pic.twitter.com/IQ2RbsNKRD
It was a nice idea while we flirted with it.
But did Celtic and Nicholson really think after Hassan’s performance in the World Cup that no other clubs would be interested in him?
As far as I’m concerned, we were never really interested in the Egyptian international.
This one was the usual paper talk, designed to make us look good, and to fool the fans into thinking the board and Nicholson were busy in the transfer market.
I think we all know by now that they’re not, and a summer that has landed just 2 players so far proves that much.
Now it’s time to move onto the next target.
Oops, we don’t have another target!
Oh, well.
Jamesie Forrest and Yang will do just fine.
Another one bites the dust!
Key Takeaways
- Celtic can no longer pursue Haissem Hassan as he favours a move to Olympique de Marseille.
- Hassan’s French roots and career background make Marseille an ideal destination for him.
- Celtic’s CEO Michael Nicholson struggles to compete with Marseille’s well-established leadership.
- The author doubts Celtic’s genuine interest in Hassan, seeing it as a smokescreen to appease fans.
- With only two signings so far, Celtic lacks a clear backup target amid transfer market failures.
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Phillip Cooney 
Bhoycie 
Aodhán Ó Conchobhair 
Nicholson what a totally inept CEO you could cut his wages and he would say nothing fuckwhit.
Won’t be paying to watch us get thumped in europe
Too bloody slow low balling and the worst ceo ever who couldnt run a bath never mind a transfer window
Every cloud has a fiver lining.
Time to make the call. A call that should delight the Celtic board, one that saves them on the cost of international communication, a nice local, cheaper option.
For me, it was always the right call to make.
Pick up the handset.
Dial 01698 333333.
Introduce themselves politely.
Ask to speak ‘Brian Caldwell’.
Congratulate him on the clubs last season and on their impressive transitional phase and performances this far this season.
Be prepared to engage in some small talk, if the call leads amably towards that direction.
Focus the discussion assertively but with tact & without a hint of arrogance,
“Listen Brian, there’s a specific reason I called. I, we, and most crucially Martin O’Neill have genuine admiration for your club and of a few of your players who are of particular interest to us.
Today, the player we would like to, not register our interest upon – I know that’s how we used to do things, no the player we would like to purchase is Tawanda Maswanhise and I am formally presenting a £4m bid, the terms of which are simple enough, standard cash bid, spread across the next two seasons.”
Await a response.
“Brian, I absolutely understand and yes I can see why you would like to hold onto him, at least until after the second leg of the HJK Helsinki tie. I’m not suggesting it’s a deal breaker but I do note he hasn’t started games this season, owing to his jaw injury delaying his pre-season. I note you have another promising young right winger & a few strikers. We have a preference to conclude the deal ASAP and in an act of good faith & to expedite matters, we are prepared to go £4m today and to offer the season long loan of Michel Ange Balakwisha to yourselves also. Can we have your blessing to begin communicating with Twanda & his agent?
We would like to assertively conclude business and therefore prevent such a story from unduly unsettling the player, your club and it’s loyal fans in some protracted, drawn out manner. Let’s not give the media the opportunity to unsettle everyone with regales of ‘Will they? Won’t they?’ articles.
It really is a pleasure to do business with such an honourable and well run club, now if the broad terms are agreeable, we would be delighted to invite yourselves to a meeting at which the finer points can be ratified, signed off & the registration of Twanda to Celtic can be completed.
Many thanks for your time today, Brian.
Hopefully, we can shortly do more business together soon…young Mr Longelo is certainly a player we admire.”
No international call charges, no language barriers to overcome, no need therefore to engage the services of an expensive translator.
Just a simple business like call to a club and a player who are only some 10miles along the road.
The player, a known quantity & an exciting, athletic & versatile young man. The deal, likely way less expensive than the other options speculated about.
Didier Agathe 2.0?! Martin O’Neill definitely deserves that kind of support. If Maswanhise is of interest to him, the club should throw it’s full weight of support to secure the player.