Fee Agreed As Celtic Man Heads To Championship

Celtic midfielder Daniel Kelly will move to Millwall this week, with a fee now agreed between the two clubs.

According to the Daily Record, Kelly is set to move to the Lions despite being offered a new deal to stay. Brendan Rodgers is believed to have been willing to increase the teenager’s wages by £5,000 per week, but that won’t be enough to convince him to stay in the SPFL.

It was revealed earlier this week he had agreed a move to Millwall in January. “Dan has agreed to join the club. A deal has been agreed and he has signed. He officially joins us in January,” Lions boss Neil Harris said on Tuesday. “He is a young player that we think has got huge potential. He is a very good player. When Dan first walks into the building he is not going to be someone that everyone should expect to go straight into the team.”

Instead, he’s now set to move to London this week, where the struggling Lions will pay around £400,000 plus add-ons to secure his early release. While the youngster signed a pre-contract with Neil Harris’s side this week with a view to a January move, he was set to play out the rest of his contract in the Lowland League with Celtic B. Millwall now want to speed up the process, hence the freshly-agreed terms.

After a tough start to the season, Harris clearly feels he needs the player sooner rather than later. It’s reported he is now in London, with a medical scheduled for the next couple of days. Representatives of the Lions are hoping that Kelly will be able to face Hull City in the Championship next weekend.

It’s been a frustrating summer for the player. He came through the youth ranks at Parkhead and has played for Scotland’s Under 19 side, but he turned down a fresh deal and was farmed out to play for their B team. This came after he broke into the first team picture last season, scoring in the 7-1 victory against Dundee in February.

Writer’s View

Kelly is a special talent who has had to make a big decision around his future. Hailing from East Kilbride, you could be forgiven for thinking that Celtic and Scotland would be the best place for him to develop, but he’s seemingly set on the bottom end of the Championship with Millwall.

They’ve made a big call also. £400,000 is not a small amount of money for a player they would have got much cheaper in January, but Harris might be a manager under pressure right now, given their poor start to the season. Perhaps he sees the central midfielder as a key part of his battle against relegation, which is where it feels the Lions might be fighting this season.