Joe Aribo is currently the centre of attraction for both Celtic and Rangers and it looks like the player has made up his mind as to which club he wants to join.
Joe Aribo plays for Charlton Athletic but the English side have certainly failed to keep a hold of him for the upcoming season amidst strong interest from a number of clubs.
For a couple of weeks now it was certain that the midfielder would be joining either Rangers or Celtic even though Charlton boss Lee Bowyer clearly was against this idea.
The manager said: “I’ve told him to come and see me, tell me his options and we can have a chat.
“He needs to stay and do a year in the Championship with us – so that he learns more. Then it might be a case of him leaving next season. It would be a huge thing if he stayed and kept learning because the big moves will come later on, if he does it right.
“Joe is a great lad, so we are going to have to wait and see what he says. There is respect there. He likes the club as well. It is the same with Pat Bauer – he didn’t want to leave.
“He said before: ‘I don’t want to leave, I love the lads and there are fantastic staff.’
“He had been here for four years, but he had no choice really when sides are offering him double what he is on here.
“That is a difficult thing to turn down, he has got a young family and is just married. Unfortunately, we couldn’t compete to keep him here, as much as we tried. We just couldn’t match that.”
But all these positive words from the manager seems to have done very little as reports are claiming that Joe Aribo has chosen to join Rangers and this is certainly a huge setback to Neil Lennon’s Celtic.
Last week it was being claimed that Celtic are actually leading the race to sign the 22-year-old but it is being claimed that the youngster is keen on working with Steven Gerrard as a result of which he has chosen to head to Ibrox.
While he will be available for free once his contract with Charlton expires this summer but reports suggest that the Gers are eager to wrap up the transfer this week itself meaning Charlton will be receiving a compensation fee of around £300,000 for Joe Aribo.
