Celtic wanted to sign £33m star in the making but ended up with Jullien

Brendan Rodgers was backed by the board during the summer transfer window as Celtic brought in a number of players to bolster their playing squad.

The Hoops manager lost key midfielder Matt O’Riley, who left to sign for Premier League side Brighton & Hove Albion, but was able to bring in a host of fresh recruits,

Arne Engels, Paulo Bernardo, Auston Trusty, Adam Idah, Alex Valle, Luke McCowan, Kasper Schmeichel, and Viljami Sinisalo were all snapped up by the Scottish giants.

So far so good for Celtic and their new signings as they have won all nine of their matches in all competitions this season, including keeping six clean sheets in six games in the Scottish Premiership.

Trusty played a part in the last clean sheet, against St Johnstone, as he made his full league debut for the club, following on from his £6m move from Sheffield United during the summer transfer window.

Rodgers and Celtic will be hoping that the USA international will go on to be a roaring success for the Scottish side, in the same vein as the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Kristoffer Ajer, rather than struggle – as Christopher Jullien did after his big-money switch to Parkhead.

How much Celtic paid for Christopher Jullien

In the summer of 2019, the Hoops reportedly splashed out a fee of £7m to sign the central defender from Ligue 1 Toulouse to bolster their defensive options for Neil Lennon.

The former France U20 international had played 99 times in Ligue 1 during the previous three campaigns and this meant that Celtic brought in a centre-back who had proven himself in a major European league.

Jullien hit the ground running at Parkhead and showcased that top level experience, with seven goals in 47 appearances in all competitions for the club in his first year in Scotland – including one goal in eight Europa League outings.

As you can see in the table above, however, the central defender suffered with horrible injuries during his second and third seasons with Celtic.

He missed a staggering 59 matches with a knee injury, which kept him out from December 2020 to December 2021, just over a month after he returned from a back injury.

By the time Jullien recovered, Ange Postecoglou had arrived at Celtic and established a centre-back pairing of Cameron Carter-Vickers and Carl Starfelt, which made it difficult for the Frenchman to break back into the side.

This eventually led to his permanent exit from the club in the summer of 2022. Ligue 1 side Montpellier swooped in to sign him for a reported fee of £850k, which was a significant loss on the £7m that the Hoops paid for him in 2019.

Whilst it is hard to blame the club for that loss, as his plummeting value was inflicted by unfortunate injuries, but some may wonder what could have been, as Celtic were eyeing an alternative centre-back in 2019 – Fikayo Tomori.

Celtic’s interest in Fikayo Tomori

It was reported in the summer of 2019, with The Scottish Sun relaying the print edition of The Mirror, that the Scottish giants were interested in signing the central defender from Chelsea.

The outlet claimed that the Hoops wanted to snap the England U21 international up from the Premier League side on a permanent basis, after his loan spell with Derby County in the Championship.

Tomori, managed by Frank Lampard, helped the Rams to reach the play-off final that season, as they lost to Aston Villa in the final, and racked up a staggering 55 appearances in all competitions.

The report, which came out before the end of the play-offs, added that Derby would also have been interested in signing the defender on a permanent basis if they had been promoted to the Premier League.

Unfortunately, for Celtic, Chelsea decided to appoint Lampard – who managed the centre-back for the Rams – as their new manager that summer, and he opted to integrate the youngster into the first-team squad at Stamford Bridge.

One that got away

The transfers that nearly happened but never did. This article is part of Football FanCast’s One That Got Away series.

This meant that the Hoops could not swoop in to secure a deal for the Englishman and his career since shows that he is one that got away from them.

Fikayo Tomori’s current market value

At the time of writing (30/09/2024), Transfermarkt has the central defender’s current market value at a whopping €40m (£33m) and that is a significant rise from the €10m (£8m) it was at in the summer of 2019.

He made 15 appearances for Chelsea in the Premier League during the 2019/20 campaign, after Celtic’s interest in him, but failed to establish himself as a regular.

In January 2021, Tomori made the decision to join Milan on loan for the second half of the 2020/21 season and played 22 games in all competitions during that five-month stint.

His form during that loan spell convinced Milan to splash out a fee of £25m to sign the central defender on a permanent deal, two years on from Celtic’s pursuit of the brute.

That investment made an instant return for the Italian giants as he played in 31 of their 38 league matches as they won the Serie A title in the 2021/22 campaign.

As you can see in the table above, Tomori was a dominant defender for Milan in their title-winning season, winning an eye-catching 76% of his duels on the ground.

The 25-year-old star, who was dubbed an “incredible” signing for the Italian side by U23 scout Antonio Mango, has gone on to rack up 186 appearances for the club in all competitions to date.

Celtic should look back on Tomori as one that got away from them as they could have landed a top-class centre-back with the potential to be sold on for a significant profit, based on his soaring value since 2019.