Former Celtic transfer chief Lee Congerton has named two world football superstars he tried to sign for Celtic as he sighed "we had no money".

The recruitment specialist - who worked at Celtic between 2017 and 2019 - was responsible for the deal to bring Odsonne Edouard to Scotland.

And he wanted to further utilise knowledge in France to land then PSG youngsters Christian Nkunku and Moussa Diaby.

Former RB Leipzig forward Nkunku is currently at Chelsea while Moussa Diaby is playing for Aston Villa in the Premier League.

Congerton, 50, admitted he had limited funds at Celtic under Peter Lawwell as he opened up on the transfer near misses in Glasgow. 

Congerton told the Telegraph: “At Celtic we had no money. Peter Lawwell is a nice man, he’s an accountant.

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"Brendan spoke to me and said we needed pace and power, speed. We all know PSG has an amazing youth programme with players at the time who were never going to play for PSG.

"Two of the other players we tried to sign during my time were [Moussa] Diaby, who is now at Aston Villa, and [Christopher] Nkunku who is now at Chelsea."

Congerton further revealed that he left Celtic due to "several players I didn't want to be anywhere near them" signing for the club.

 

He added: “But there were several players I didn’t want to be anywhere near them and that is why I left. Peter knows that and so did Brendan."

Congerton was named Leicester City head of senior recruitment in 2019 before working at Italian club Atalanta where he signed and sold Rasmus Hojlund.

Last month, Congerton was appointed sporting director at Saudi club Al-Ahli.