Celtic told ‘strange’ transfer decision has seen target’s value reach second-highest fee in SPL history

Adam Idah, Celtic, February 2024

Carlton Palmer has called the decision for Celtic not to include a buy option in their January loan of Adam Idah “strange,” and they’ll now have to pay a near record fee for him.

Idah never had a massive impact in his 115 senior games for Norwich. The striker’s highest Championship goals tally before this season was three in 17 games, in the 2020/21 season.

He did begin to display decent touch in the first half of this campaign.

Indeed, Idah notched six goals and an assist, playing all but one of the games he was available for. More than half of his goals came in the first eight games of the season.

As such, with his production dropping and Jonathan Rowe, Josh Sargent and Gabriel Sara all in good nick in front of goal, the Canaries allowed him to go out on loan to Celtic.

The striker’s move to the Glasgow outfit aided Brendan Rodgers’ search for attacking talent.

TEAMtalk revealed at the back end of the January window that Idah was making the move on a short-term basis.

Also revealed in that exclusive report on the move was that Celtic were not including a buy option in the deal.

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Celtic transfer decision branded ‘strange’

That’s something that might now be grating on them, as Idah hit the ground running immediately, with five goals and an assist within his first five games.

Palmer has hailed the striker for his form in Scotland, and believes it shows Celtic have messed up by not including a fee in the deal.

“It’s a very, very bright start,” Palmer told Football League World.

“It’s strange that Celtic didn’t agree a fee for him.”

Palmer expects Idah value has risen exponentially

Palmer also suggests that the fee Celtic will now have to pay will prove to them that they should have put a fixed fee in the loan deal, as Idah is worth way more than he would have been in January given his top start.

“It remains to be seen what the figure will be. But it will be more than the original £3million that was touted at the start,” Palmer said.

“For a player of his age and as an international, the fee could be around £10million, which would be seen as a reasonable fee for a player of his experience and stature.”

That’s a massive rise on the initial price Celtic could have got Idah for, which would have proved a steal and something Norwich could have done nothing about.

But a £10million transfer is uncharted territory for the Hoops, and it would represent the second most-expensive deal in the history of the Scottish Premiership.

Only Rangers’ deal to sign Tore Andre Flo from Chelsea in 2000 was more expensive – that £12million would be worth a lot more now, though.

It remains to be seen whether Celtic will drop the big sum on Idah at the end of the season, but they’ll certainly want to land him for good if he keeps up with these stellar performances.