£10.5m and counting: £23.5k-p/w "monster" should have played his final game for Celtic - opinion

When Celtic spent £7m on Christopher Jullien back in the summer of 2019, hopes for the centre-back were extremely high at Parkhead.

Indeed, upon the then-26-year-old’s signing, Neil Lennon said of the Frenchman: “We are delighted to bring Christopher to Celtic. He is a quality player with great attributes.”

And, the Northern Irishman’s belief that the £4.95m-rated defender was a talented player proved to be correct over his 47 appearances during his debut campaign at Parkhead, in which Jullien scored an impressive seven goals and helped his side to secure the Premiership title, the Scottish Cup and the Scottish League Cup, as well as reaching the knockout stages of the Europa League.

The £23.5k-per-week man continued his impressive form over his nine Premiership outings last season, in which he helped his side keep five clean sheets, scored one goal and registered one assist, in addition to making an average of 1.2 interceptions, 1.2 tackles, 3.6 clearances and winning 6.9 duels per game – with these returns seeing the 29-year-old average a highly impressive SofaScore match rating of 7.43.

However, since sustaining a serious knee injury in a 3-0 victory over Dundee United in December 2020 – a setback that was initially predicted to keep the former French youth international sidelined for around four months – Jullien has played just 16 minutes of football for Celtic, coming on as a second-half substitute in the 4-0 SFA Cup win over Raith Rovers in February.

Indeed, over the Bhoys’ last four league fixtures, Ange Postecoglou has not selected the 6 foot 7 giant – who Bernard David dubbed a “monster” – in his matchday squad, something which has left many to question whether the centre-back has a future under the