Celtic could regret not signing Alireza Jahanbakhsh for minimal fee

HITC – LONDON, Two years after being linked with £1.5m move, one-time Celtic and Norwich City target Alireza Jahanbakhsh could cost £9m.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, it does not exist in football. Otherwise, each and every Premier League club would not spend huge sums on overpriced flops on a yearly basis.

Though Celtic and Norwich City may regret not signing a player when they had the chance. According to The Scotsman, 21-year-old Alireza Jahanbakhsh had piqued the duo’s interest back in 2015 after an eye-catching breakthrough campaign with NEC Nijmegen in the Dutch second division.

At the time, the Iranian was reportedly priced at a bargain price of just £1.5 million.

Two years on, however, it is fair to say his value has skyrocketed. According to the Daily Mail, Premier League trio Watford, Burnley and Bournemouth are all interested, although current club AZ Alkmaar would need an offer of £9 million to convince him to sell.

And you could see why they would demand such a fee. Jahanbakhsh has scored eight and assisted eight in his most impressive season in the Eredivisie, while his dribbling ability and eye for a pass makes him something of a Swiss army knife of an attacker.

Therefore, Alkmaar could be set for a rather substantial windfall in the summer – just twelve months after they earned £18.6 million from the sale of star striker Vincent Janssen to Tottenham Hotspur, as reported by Sky Sports.

And although it is the defence rather than the attack that Celtic and Norwich must aim to strengthen this summer, Jahanbakhsh’s rapid improvement during the last two seasons suggests that they may have dropped the ball not signing him when they had the chance.

After all, he may be out of their price range these days.