'Top class' - Celtic title winner in Rangers admission as ex-loanee links up with ex-Arsenal ace in £5.1m deal

Ex-Celtic loanee Alex Valle is set to complete a permanent transfer to Como this week after the Italian outfit agreed to meet the €6million release clause in the Barcelona defender’s contract.

The 21-year-old Spaniard spent the first-half of last season on loan at Celtic Park, playing 18 times for Brendan Rodgers’ side, helping the club win the Premier Sports Cup where he featured in the penalty shootout win over Rangers last December.

A regular in the matchday squad during his time in Glasgow, the Barcelona youngster rotated with Greg Taylor in the Celtic starting XI, and also played five times for the Hoops during last season’s Champions League campaign.

However, despite featuring regularly, the Catalonia-born defender saw his loan deal at Celtic Park cut short amid rumours of Kieran Tierney’s return to the club from Arsenal in January, agreeing another loan deal with Como shortly afterwards.

Alex Valle spent time on loan at Celtic last season, but left to join Como. | SNS Group

While Tierney’s did not return to the club in January, agreeing a pre-contract deal that will see him return this summer instead, Celtic’s signing of Jeffrey Schlupp on a loan deal from Crystal Palace meant Valle was able to link up with ex-Arsenal icon and head coach Cesc Fabregas on a deal until the end of the season at Como.

Valle became a first team regular for the Lombardy-based club in the second-half of the season, playing 12 times as the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia outfit finished in an impressive 10th place on their return to the Serie A.

A product of Barcelona’s famous La Masia academy, Valle first showcased his potential during a loan spell at Levante in Spain’s Segunda Division prior to his stint at Celtic, but is now set to depart European giants Barcelona on a permanent transfer after Fabrizio Romano confirmed a deal to take Valle to Como was ‘done’.

He claims I Lariani have agreed to meet the player’s release clause of €6million (approximately £5.1million), with €4million to be paid this year and a further €2million in 2026. Valle is claimed to have agreed a four-year-deal deal that will take him to the summer of 2029.

Staying with Celtic, the man who replaced him, Jeffrey Schlupp, has been discussing the impact the club had on him during his own six month loan spell in a new interview with Sky Sports.

“Personally, I had a great time up there,” said Schlupp. “Loved every minute of it. I managed to go there and get into the thick of things straight away, which was an experience. The atmosphere, and everything everyone told me about Celtic that I was going to expect was amazing.

“My first derby. We lost it. A great game for the neutral, I am sure. But that wasn’t too nice, but the atmosphere and everything around it was top class. I am just happy to have been part of that.”