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Du Wei set for Celtic in race against time
By MARK WILSON (The Herald)
Updated: 2005-08-31 10:19
Du Wei should become a Celtic player in time to beat tonight's transfer
deadline after enduring a chaotic 24 hours that pushed the deal to the brink of
collapse.
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| Du
Wei set for Celtic in race against time. | The
24-year-old centre-back missed the last scheduled flight from Shanghai to the UK
yesterday after being trapped in complicated negotiations. He was left
scrambling to find the quickest way to reach Glasgow and complete the
formalities before the transfer window shuts at midnight.
Celtic remained confident last night that Du would be added to their squad
but, privately, they have been bewildered by the difficulty in dealing with
Shanghai Shenhua, the selling club. Reports in China claim a fee of about
¡ê720,000 had earlier been agreed for the transfer of the player, who was this
week granted a provisional work permit by the Home Office. Shenhua, however,
then insisted they were unhappy with the proposed structure of payments,
demanding instalments at regular intervals and not based on the number of first-
team appearances made by Du.Wu Jinan, deputy general manager of Shenhua,
informed Du the transfer may be off. He was told to await developments at
Shanghai airport but, while a compromise was found, a problem arose with the
terms of severance between Du and Shenhua. The former captain of China's Olympic
side was forced to return for talks with the club and missed the last flight to
Heathrow. He was relieved to eventually be given approval to travel to Scotland.
Shenhua last week turned down a proposal that would have seen Celtic
initially loan the player for six months but there were suggestions from China
last night that that plan may have been rekindled.
Meanwhile, reports that Celtic were closing in on the signing of Ian Harte,
the Republic of Ireland left-back, have been dismissed.
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