John Kennedy has confirmed that Scott Sinclair is on Brendan Rodgers’ wanted list.
The out of favour Aston Villa winger has been linked with a move north of the border for a number of weeks without any official comment from either party.
Sinclair enjoyed the best football of his career working with Rodgers at Swansea but after moving to Manchester City in 2012 has struggled to find form or a regular game.
Villa have been quoted as looking for a £5m fee for the 27-year-old with Celtic holding fire to get the player at a price closer to their valuation.
Before flying to Dublin to meet Barcelona Kennedy was asked if a fee had been agreed for Sinclair and admitted: “There are a number of targets we’re looking at but we need to make sure they are the right ones.
“He [Sinclair] is one that has been mentioned but he’s still an Aston Villa player. We want to bring quality in and that is certainly the calibre of player we’re looking at.”
Sinclair’s arrival would almost certainly mean the end of the road for James Forrest and Gary Mackay-Steven.
Forrest has six months to run on his contract while Mackay-Steven hasn’t taken any part in the pre-season programme due to injury.
So far Rodgers has only spent £500,000 on transfer fees (for Moussa Dembele from Fulham) although the Frenchman and Kolo Toure will be on big wages as well as hefty signing on fees.
If Celtic get past Astana on Wednesday they will be assured of European football until Christmas with the £20m reward for reaching the Champions League dwarfing the money available from the Europa League.