Brondby knocked back transfer Deadline Day bids from Celtic for Mathias Kvistgaarden, claims chairman Jan Bech Andersen.
Celtic have been heavily linked with the 22-year-old for over a year now and stepped up their attempts to land him on the final day of the transfer window as Brendan Rodgers tried in vain to land a replacement for Kyogo following his £10million switch to Rennes last week. However, the Danes have slapped a £13.5million price tag on their star assets head and there was no late deal to be done with the Scottish champions.
He said: “Yes, we turned down offers – concrete ones and less concrete ones. There were never any numbers that made us deviate from our plan not to sell him in this transfer window. They weren’t good enough, but hopefully it will be when the time is right for him and the club. It was 100 per cent a goal for us to keep him for the rest of the season. There have been many enquiries about him – on the last day and the penultimate day of the transfer window.
“But we have a good dialogue with Kvistgaarden and his agent about what we are trying to achieve together. And the plan was for him to play for us in the spring, when we have many big goals to achieve and then we have to see what happens in the summer.”
Meanwhile, Slovan Bratislava boss Vladimir Weiss has opened the door on Celtic resurrecting their move for David Strelec after insisting the striker is bound for bigger clubs than Middlesbrough. The Hoops were seemingly priced out of the market for the Slovakian international and he looked set for a £9 million move to a club in a country where the transfer window was still open this month.
However, after Slovan’s 3-1 Slovakian Cup win against Trencin – where Strelec didn’t play because of the recent transfer speculation – boss Weiss revealed his star man is staying put until the summer. And he admitted he’s glad a last gasp transfer to English Championship promotion hopefuls Boro fell through.
Weiss said: “David’s staying with us. He had the opportunity to go to Middlesbrough, but I think he has more potential. I believe he will be able to choose from even better clubs later. Middlesbrough made us a good offer. It was rushed. We gave them the go-ahead the night before, but it didn’t happen. We gave him permission to open talks, but it stopped
“I’m not going to lie. He’s not injured enough to be out of the game, but he was a little out of it in his head. He will have to come back with his head down and get on with it. He will definitely be here until the summer. I believe that his goals will help us win the title. Then he will be able to leave if offers come in that the club is happy with.
“I’m glad he’s staying here. I get that every player wants to go to a better league, for better conditions, for better money. That was his opinion too. There was interest in three or four players at the club, but the title is the priority for us.”