Porto are set to lodge a £14million January bid for Celtic midfielder Olivier Ntcham and are ready to offer ex-Newcastle United defender Chancel Mbemba as a makeweight in the deal, according to the Scottish Sun.
The newspaper claim the Portugese giants are ready to offer a cash-plus-player deal for the Frenchman 18 months after he signed for £4.5million from Manchester City.
The Sun report that Porto “are not prepared to take no for an answer” in their pursuit of Ntcham this month and are keen to sweeten the deal by including Mbemba just months after he signed from Newcastle for £8million.
OPINION
On the face of it, £14million for Ntcham looks absolutely brilliant business. If Porto think he is worth that, then they haven’t seen him in action since October, with the start of autumn prompted a dramatic decline in his form from which he has not recovered. Anyone watching Ntcham stink out the recent Old Firm defeat to Rangers wouldn’t have offered £14 for him. Celtic should bite the hands off the Champions League last-16 club at the chance of making a near-£10million profit on a player who has not even been a regular starter in recent times. As for including Mbemba in a cash-plus-player deal, that depends upon how much the ex-Newcastle man is valued at. £8million appears way too steep. Celtic should demand £10million in cash plus the former Premier League centre-back, and they will then have a deal that would make the beancounters at Parkhead happy, as well as stiffen a team that still looks fragile, despite the recent wave of attacking player arrival.