Bournemouth signed Celtic star Ryan Christie on Deadline Day this August and brought him into English football for the first time.
Bournemouth’s move for 23-cap Scotland international Christie came after a season where they missed out on promotion back to the Premier League.
The Cherries are currently leading the Sky Bet Championship and have an unbeaten start to their 2021/22 campaign. Seven wins and four draws give them a three-point lead over nearest rivals West Bromwich Albion.
Now Sun man Alan Nixon (Sun on Sunday print edition, 03.10.21, pg. 61) reveals added extras that Bournemouth will pay should they be promoted to the Premier League.
Nixon – added details of Bournemouth’s Christie deal
Sun man Nixon reveals that The Cherries paid just £2.5million for Christie to bring him to the south coast from SPL side Celtic. However, he also adds that this relatively low fee could be bolstered by bolted-on extras.
Most specifically, Nixon writes that promotion back to the Premier League “will cost Bournemouth £2million in extras.” He also adds that as well as this ‘promotion clause’, Celtic have also installed a ‘survival clause’ in the event that Bournemouth do go up and manage to stay up.
Christie featured in Celtic’s SPL campaign, Champions League and Europa League Qualifying competitions before his move south of the border. Since that move, he has impressed in his six Championship appearances – providing three assists.
Thoughts?
In fairness, an initial £2.5million fee for Ryan Christie is a steal for Bournemouth. Even an added £2million to that in the event of Premier League promotion is made more bearable by the additional monies that such a promotion would bring.
Of course, according to Nixon, Bournemouth would need to shell out again to Celtic should they manage to survive a first season back in the Premier League.
Still, bearing in mind the level of cash that is involved with promotion to the Premier League, having to pay out these two sums to Celtic will hardly break the bank.
Ryan Christie has, through those three assists, already started to pay Bournemouth back for the faith that they had in him when signing him. Should he continue in this vein, he will be a valuable signing indeed.
