According to a report in the Daily Record the agent for David Turnbull has turned down the terms on offer from Celtic for a transfer fee in the region of £3m.
According to Transfer Markt the midfielder is represented by the Prolegal Group who describe themselves as ‘A unique concept in the challenging world of football agency.’
Heading up the group is Liam O’Donnell, a registered lawyer, who came to prominence during negotiations between Celtic and Stuart Armstrong. Prolegal started off working with PFA Scotland to act against unscrupulous agents as revealed by this article in the Daily Record, one of their first clients was David Goodwillie.
When Armstrong was transferred to Southampton he picked up a significant wage rise. When he added 12 months onto his Celtic contract in 2017 most hoops supporters suspected that he wouldn’t be staying around for the duration of that deal.
With knowledge of Armstrong’s Celtic deal, and also Ryan Christie, the Prolegal Group will know the pay scale inside Celtic and what is likely to be available in England.
Having recently negotiated Andy Robertson’s new contract at Liverpool they clearly have an insight into the cash swirling around at the highest level of the game.
Managing the fall out of the Turnbull deal will test all their diplomatic skills, if a better offer isn’t available in England they will either have to go back to Celtic or in the worst case scenario return the player to Motherwell where he is likely to be picking up less than a tenth of the offer rejected to move to Celtic.
After rushing out their statement on Wednesday night Motherwell will be aware that a mistimed tackle in pre-season training could put their prize asset out of action.