Sold at £1.8m, now worth 500% more: Lawwell had a Celtic mare on "deadly" £38k-p/w ace - opinion

When Celtic were planning for life after Kieran Tierney in the summer of 2019 – with the left-back having been heavily linked with a move away from Parkhead for a number of months, before ultimately sealing a £25m move to Arsenal – Neil Lennon and Peter Lawwell were believed to have identified a number of targets to replace the Scotland international.

One such target was reported to be OGC Nice’s Romain Perraud, a former France U21 international who had highly impressed on a season-long loan spell at Paris FC, while another was Rapid Vienna left-back, Boli Bolingoli.

And, despite contacting the Ligue 1 side regarding a deal for Perraud, Lennon and Lawwell ultimately decided to go with Bolingoli – spending a quite considerable £3m on the Belgian, while Perraud went on to join Stade Brestois in a £1.8m move the same summer.

However, since these moves, the careers of Bolingoli and Perraud have gone in quite contrasting directions, with Celtic’s decision to go with the 26-year-old ahead of the Frenchman proving to have been something of a nightmare.

Indeed, the £1.35m-rated Bolingoli failed to impress over 14 Scottish Premiership appearances in his debut campaign, before being bombed out of Lennon’s first-team squad after being found to have broken lockdown restrictions in August 2020.

Since then the £12.5k-per-week dud has featured just three times for the Bhoys, something which has led to the Belgian being heavily linked with a move away from the club for the past year.

Meanwhile, following Perraud’s move to Brest, the defender has gone from strength to strength, highly impressing over his 36 Ligue 1 appearances last season, scoring three goals, registering seven assists and creating five big chances for his teammates, as