Aston Villa and Chelsea stars worth £103m miss out on Celtic transfers as Peter Lawwell confession 'revealed'

Celtic misses on two top French stars in the English Premier League have been revealed - alongside what Peter Lawwell thought about it.

The Hoops have proven a positive platform to the English Premier League for stars like Virgil Van Dijk, Odsonne Edourad and many more down the years. They have also missed on some famous faces, most recently, John McGinn being one that edged close to Celtic before joining Aston Villa.

It’s one of the Villans captain’s teammates, Moussa Diaby, and Christopher Nkunku that former Hoops transfer chief Lee Congerton admits the club missed out on. He worked with current boss Brendan Rodgers in his first stint at the club and admits finances were a stumbling block.

That is something then-chief executive and current chairman Peter Lawwell was well aware of, with Congerton since working for Leicester City and now at Serie A team Atalanta as head of senior recruitment. Diaby joined Villa for a reported £51.9m while Nkunku signed for Chelsea at £52m, so £103m worth of talent at Parkhead would no doubt have gone down a treat.

Congerton told The Daily Telegraph: "At Celtic we had no money. Peter Lawwell is a nice man, he's an accountant. Brendan spoke to me and said we needed pace and power, speed.

“We all know PSG has an amazing youth programme with players at the time who were never going to play for PSG. Two of the other players we tried to sign during my time were [Moussa] Diaby, who is now at Aston Villa, and [Christopher] Nkunku who is now at Chelsea.

"But there were several players I didn't want to be anywhere near them and that is why I left. Peter knows that and so did Brendan. Atalanta is very different.”