Jozo Simunovic has vowed to return to Celtic and fight his way into Brendan Rodgers’ plans after a proposed deal to take him to Serie A hit the buffers last night.
The Croatian defender was poised for a switch to Seria A with Torino after sharing a flight to Italy with England goalkeeper Joe Hart yesterday.
However, the deal collapsed late last night after agreement could not be reached between Celtic and Torino, with the Italians attempt to make the move a temporary one-season loan which did not suit the Parkhead side who were holding out for a permanent contract.
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Simunovic has toiled to make an impression with Celtic due to a number of injury issues – and while reports from his homeland claimed yesterday that he had not passed a medical in Italy, the player himself insisted that was not the case.
When asked if he was happy to return to Glasgow if a move failed to materialise, Simunovic replied: “Yes, of course, that is no problem for me. I am ready to go back if the clubs cannot find an agreement. I just want to play football.”
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Efe Ambrose and Stuart Armstrong also turned the chance to move on from the club, with Celtic accepting a £300k bid from Standard Liege for Ambrose. The defender’s, preference, however, is to remain in the UK.
It remains to be seen if Ambrose is included in Celtic's Champions League squad for the group stages which has to be submitted by 11pm tonight. The player was excluded from the play-off squad at the expense of goalkeeper Doris de Vries and Celtic have since added left back Cristian Gamboa to their pool.
It is understood there was interest from two Championship clubs for Armstrong who has stayed at Celtic, although one surprise was the loan move for Saidy Janko to Barnsley.
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The right-back had a dreadful night is Israel last week when Celtic lost on the night to Hapoel Be’er Sheva, but still made it into the group stages of the Champions League.
Janko had a desperately poor 90 minutes and it emerged late last night that he had headed to Barnsley for the remainder of the campaign.
Jason Denayer, who spent a season on loan at Celtic from Manchester City in Ronny Deila’s first season at the club, was also on the radar of the Parkhead side last night but has gone to Sunderland on loan.
Elsewhere, James McCarthy, who had been linked with a high profile loan to Celtic, is set to undergo groin surgery on Friday and has been withdrawn from the Ireland camp who play Serbia on Monday.
The former Hamilton Accies player has remained at Everton for the time being.
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