There is one non-Celtic transfer story which Celtic fans will be keeping an eye on.

As I said in this morning’s article, I have no intention of writing another word about Celtic’s transfer window until it is shut. That means no pieces about signings, no pieces about potential signings, no pieces about departures, no pieces about the strategy, and no pieces about the people who are responsible for the mess we are currently in.

But that doesn’t mean I’m going to ignore the fact that the transfer window is open and that things are going on. I put up one piece today about Todd Cantwell, who will be leaving Ibrox in this window, whether they can get a buyer or have to tear up his contract. There are other stories out there of peripheral interest to Celtic, and it’s one of those that I’m going to take a look at.

Aside from the Matt O’Riley deal, there is one other obvious area where Celtic might get a transfer window windfall. For reasons that aren’t immediately apparent, it hasn’t happened yet, but there are two days left, and there’s talk that this may be one of the late-breaking deals. One of the clubs interested is Liverpool.

According to the German media, Jeremie Frimpong is determined to leave Leverkusen in this transfer window, and a couple of clubs from England are said to be interested.

There was talk earlier in the window about Real Madrid. There was some talk about Paris Saint-Germain. There was brief talk about Barcelona. None of that has transpired, and apparently, it’s left the player frustrated, and it has certainly left the bean counters on our board frustrated because we’re entitled to a half-decent sell-on clause. If that money had come in sooner, Rodgers might even have got a few pence of it to spend.

Still, that doesn’t mean that the deal won’t go through. As long as there’s time left, it’s more than possible that it will. In fact, it looks increasingly likely. I think most people were surprised that the deal hasn’t happened already.

When he got selected for the Dutch national team recently, most folk thought he was well on his way to a superclub; few realised that Leverkusen might be on the brink of becoming one themselves. Although his debut wasn’t exactly spectacular, he wasn’t the only person in the national side who flopped that night, and most people don’t hold it against the player.

They know that he’ll come good. He was one of the leading lights of Leverkusen’s charge to the German title last season, and as such, he’s a guy who’s highly rated and has caught the eye of a lot of clubs across Europe.

Frimpong is one of those surprising players who has more talent than was evident at first glance. It’s well known that we signed him as a development player, but he quickly demonstrated that he was the best right-back at the club. Before anyone realised what had happened, he was playing for the club every week.

He was one of the most exciting players that many of us have watched at full-back for Celtic. Naturally, he wasn’t at the club long. Almost the very second that a decent offer came in, he was sold. We accepted the bid, and off he went in that “tough window” of January.

Of course, we spent none of the money, it being the COVID campaign, and ended up with a loanee from Everton called Jonjo Kenny.

All of us said at the time that, given a couple more years, he could have gone for a much higher fee. In fact, looking at the giant strides he’s made since, we could very easily have commanded the kind of numbers for Frimpong that we’ve just secured for Matt O’Riley.

He’s a really good player, and I think he would have thrived. I think he would have been a star in Ange Postecoglou’s team. Yes, that would have deprived us of Juranovic and Alistair Johnston, who are also good players, but Frimpong would have stood out a mile as a guy perfectly suited to Ange’s style of play. That’s why I half-expected that Spurs might express an interest in signing him, and maybe they still will. It would have been equally interesting to see how he played under Rodgers.

For all that, I wonder if Frimpong is going to get a reputation as one of those players who never actually settles anywhere. While I am a critic of the board—and I don’t think we fight hard enough to keep really good players at this club—it was almost as if we couldn’t wait to shift him out the door. The word at the time was that he had pretty much stamped his feet and demanded the move. I guess I can believe that. If he’s telling enough people that he wants out of Leverkusen that the German media has picked up on it, especially after only three full seasons there, and particularly after they accomplished so much last campaign, you need to wonder.

So, this one might be worth watching from a purely commercial point of view. There will be a few quid for us if he makes the move, although it’s most probably way too late for Brendan Rodgers to spend any of it.

Where I find it most interesting is that it’s entirely possible the sell-on clause that we get will be larger by several degrees of magnitude than the amount of money Ibrox has been able—or will be able—to spend in this transfer window. While I’m not going to give our board more praise than they’re entitled to, this is where, on the surface at least, we do look like a vastly better-run club than theirs, because theirs is a mess.