The Celtic board has responded to Brendan Rodgers’ criticism of their transfer inactivity by making a fresh bid of £2.7m for John McGinn.
According to a report in the well connected Daily Mail the hoops have made a fresh offer to Hibs after having three bids rejected.
The Mail states:
And on Tuesday night Celtic matched Aston Villa’s bid for McGinn in an attempt to avoid a repeat. They believed they had a verbal agreement with McGinn as recently as last weekend. Offered £23,000 a week by Villa after travelling south for talks on Tuesday, however, he is now agonising over a choice between his boyhood idols and the English Championship.
Earlier in the day Rodgers had spoken out about identifying transfer targets but failing to get deals completed.
Those comments sounded very similar to a warning from another Irishman, Martin O’Neill that Celtic should prepare for life in the slow lane if they failed to invest.
Rodgers first went public 18 months ago about his admiration of McGinn when he was playing in the Championship for Hibs.
Villa have until 5pm on Thursday to complete a move, after that the English transfer window closes.
While the player will have the ultimate say in where he goes Hibs chief Rod Petrie has a major decision on his hands.
Selling an asset to Celtic will be an unpleasant choice to make but if McGinn goes to Villa the supply of loan players that has covered Dylan McGeouch, Anthony Stokes, Liam Henderson and Scott Allan will come to a halt.