£3.4m Wasted and Counting: Disappointment at Celtic as Rodgers’ Waste on Signee who earns Higher than Palma, Yet to yield any Potentials.

£3.4m Wasted and Counting: Disappointment at Celtic as Rodgers’ Waste on Signee who earns Higher than Palma, Yet to yield any Potentials.

Since moving to Parkhead, the summer signing has had difficulty getting into the starting lineup.

After Ange Postecoglou moved down south, Celtic lured Brendan Rodgers back to Parkhead last summer for a second spell in charge of the Glasgow giants.

The Hoops then made the decision to support the Northern Irish head coach by adding nine new first-team players to the roster during the summer transfer window.

With varying degrees of success thus far, Maik Nawrocki, Hyeok-kyu Kwon, Odin Thiago Holm, Marco Tilio, Luis Palma, Paulo Bernardo, Nat Phillips, and Hyun-jun Yang were all brought in.

After losing to its competitors in the Champions League group stages and being eliminated from the League Cup in August,

Celtic is now two points adrift at the top of the Scottish Premiership.

 

Their troubles in many competitions indicate that Rodgers’ efforts during the previous transfer window have not yet paid off in full,

as evidenced by some of his acquisitions’ lack of playing time.

Specifically, Lagerbielke has not worked out well for Celtic thus far.

Without contributing much on the field, the Swedish defender has robbed the squad

of millions of dollars, making more money than Palma, a star player in the first team.

How much Celtic paid for Gustaf Lagerbielke

In August of last year, Rodgers swooped to recruit the center-back from IF Elfsborg

for an estimated sum of roughly £3 million, declaring that the youthful enforcer was

“ready” for the challenge of playing for the big boys in Scotland.

The 23-year-old titan joined following a successful first half of the season in Sweden.

At the time of his signing, he highlighted former Hoops star Virgil van Dijk as an influence.

His impressive defensive efforts for the team during his 16 Allsvenskan appearances in the 2023 season grabbed attention.

Lagerbielke had zero mistakes that directly resulted in a shot or goal for the

opposition while totaling 2.6 tackles, interceptions, and ball recoveries per game.

This implies that he was a reliable back-man who consistently finished off attacks without making significant errors.

The Swedish giant proved to be a physical force as well, winning 59% of his duels in

those 16 games after winning 64% of his fights in 20 league games for Elfsborg in 2022.

These numbers implied that the Hoops had strengthened their backline by acquiring

a towering defender who could overpower opponents with few mistakes.

Nevertheless, so far this season, things have not gone as planned for him at Parkhead,

as the Sweden international has had difficulty getting into the starting lineup under Rodgers.

Gustaf Lagerbielke’s season in numbers

The 23-year-old gem’s season thus far was summed up on Sunday as Celtic defeated

Livingston 4-2 at home in the SFA Cup quarterfinals. He was not utilized as a substitute.

He has not missed a single game for the Hoops in 2023–2024 due to injury.

Nonetheless, Rodgers has excluded him from the matchday roster on 20 separate Premier League occasions.

Since joining the £3 million club, Lagerbielke has made six league appearances for the Scottish powerhouse,

with the exception of one start as a substitute in the top tier.

Despite displaying some of his dominant defensive qualities with an exceptional duel

success rate of 71% and a ground duel success rate of 87%, the towering defender

only started four of those six Premiership games. Despite this, the manager was not

persuaded that he should have played more minutes.

 

23/24 Champions League	Gustaf Lagerbielke
Appearances	2
Goals	1
Ground duel success rate	50%
Penalties committed	1
Red cards	1
Stats via Sofascore

 

Lagerbielke also had varying degrees of success in his two Champions League group

stage matches versus Feyenoord, as the table above illustrates.

On his club’s European debut, he conceded a penalty and was sent off; nevertheless,

in his second matchup against the Dutch team, he scored the winning goal.

Overall, despite earning more money than Palma and as much as Matt O’Riley,

the Swedish defender has been a waste of a deal for Celtic thus far because he is

rarely chosen for the matchday squad, not even as a substitute.

Lagerbielke is currently earning £14k a week, which is higher than Palma’s £6k,

Liam Scales’ £5k, and Maik Nawrocki’s £12k, to mention a few.

This indicates that he has made over £400k in his first 30 weeks with the club.

This information is provided by Salary Sport.

As a result, the Hoops have lost £3.4 million and counting for a player who isn’t

considered good enough to start on the bench when all of his positional peers are available.

If the situation doesn’t improve, it might need to be looked at during the next summer transfer window.

Luis Palma’s stats this season

When you take into account the influence that Palma, who makes £6k per week,

has had on the field this season, Lagerbielke’s £14k per week appears to be a waste of money on paper.

The Honduran international, who cost an estimated £3.5 million to sign from Aris,

has given the Bhoys a serious danger in the closing minutes as a goal scorer and creator.

In addition to his two goals in four Champions League group stage starts,

he has contributed six goals in 17 Premiership games.

But since moving to Scotland last summer,

his inventiveness has been the most striking feature of his offensive performance for Rodgers on the left wing.

23/24 Premiership	Luis Palma
Appearances	23
Starts	17
Assists	9
Big chances created	12
Key passes per game	2.7
Stats via Sofascore

 

The 24-year-old wizard has been producing incredible “big chances” for his team, as

you can see in the table above, with just 17 league starts under his belt.

In those 17 Premiership games, Palma has delivered a total of six goals and nine

assists (15 direct goal contributions), demonstrating his constant quality play at the

top end of the pitch for Celtic.

These figures demonstrate how much of a bust Lagerbielke has been, as the Swedish

defender has barely made an appearance on the field, much less contributed

significantly to success on it, despite earning over twice as much per week as Palma.

The impressive dynamo has made a big impact on the pitch and featured regularly in the team.

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