The Daily Record is today reporting that Celtic are about to offer cold hard cash in order to pry Georgios Samaras from the hands of Rangers. Rangers had spoken to the Greek International whom is out of favour at Manchester City and is looking to resurrect his career ahead of this years Euro Championships.
This story does appear to contradict quotes from the player yesterday who said that he would be willinging to move out of Manchester but only for a loan spell. Im sure if anyone can convince the striker that the future is green Peter Lawwell can.
Speaking exclusively to Retard Sport he said: "At this moment I need to find somewhere to play football. I have the European Championship this summer and I need to play games before then.
"I would be happy to go to Scotland. I would not have any problem with leaving the Premier League - playing football is the main thing for me.
"I would have the chance of European football with Celtic and that is also very interesting."
And according to the Record Celtic have had a 2.5Million pound bid accepted by the club and are now ready to hammer out personal terms. This would be another hammer blow for Rangers who have now been beaten to the signatures of Scott Brown, Derek Riordan and Paul Hartley by the Scottish Champions in recent times. One cant help but think of David Murray’s "for every five pounds …" speech at times like these, especially since early reports suggest that his Holdings Company is struggling with multi-million pounds worth of debts!
In other Celtic target news it would appear that WGS is still very keen to resurrect his interest in Burnley’s highly rated Northern Irish International Kyle Lafferty. Celtic had a £500,000 bid knocked back last summer and it would appear that Strachan is willing to do everything to land his man, including offering a staggering £2.5Million plus Riordan in order to get the man he has coveted all season, and it would appear that the player is sold on a move to Parkhead.
A source close to Lafferty said last night: "Kyle is very keen to get this move but only if the clubs can agree.
"He knows how big Celtic are and that it would be a wonderful opportunity for him.
"Kyle knows all about the offer and is waiting to find out if Burnley want to accept. He's excited about the possibility and we'll all know soon enough.
"Celtic's offer is a new one and it's also a good one and the fact they are trying again to get him shows how much they rate him.
"This would be a good move and the offer being made should also please Burnley but we'll see within the next couple of days."
So with Andreas Hinkel already signed, Mizuno poised to sign by Thursday and it looking as though both Lafferty and Samaras are Parkhead bound it would appear that Celtic are acting positively during the transfer window to do everything possible to bolster the squad for the run-in. I for one applaud the clubs move but feel that this is the type of activity that should have been carried out during the summer window. Lets hope that doesn’t come back to haunt us. Although with Rangers continuing the trend of selling the family jewels one feels that may come back to haunt them!
Yours in Celtic
Clydebuilt