Anthony Joseph is adamant that Celtic have signed a pre-contract agreement with Ben Davies.
Within an hour of tweeting the story on Thursday there were denials from two reports with strong track records of being able to anticipate Peter Lawwell’s next moves.
The Preston defender is out of contract at the end of this season which allows him to actually sign a contract with a club outside of England. According to Joseph, Celtic are in discussions with Preston about a fee which is preventing them from announcing the pre-contract deal.
Paying a transfer fee or not is likely to have an impact on Davies’ personal terms, if no fee is agreed between the clubs the defender can expect to pick up a larger signing on fee when he moves in the summer. So far there has been nothing official out of Celtic.
Most likely because Celtic are now working to make the transfer immediate in this window still. Preston reluctant to sell this month. That doesn’t affect the pre-contract agreement, though.
— Anthony Joseph (@AnthonyRJoseph) January 28, 2021
Not sure it’s quite there yet. https://t.co/LgBx4F7x1r
— Alison McConnell (@alibali76) January 28, 2021
There is a chance a deal could be done in this window.
But that will need Celtic and Preston to negotiate a fee.
Alex Neil said the other day that he expected Davies to stay until the end of the season. https://t.co/cDDBnzd0o5
— Anthony Joseph (@AnthonyRJoseph) January 28, 2021
Celtic rarely make use of pre-contract agreements with Gary Mackay-Steven in January 2015 one of the few examples, a fee of £250,000 secured his early release from Dundee United.
Getting a deal completed for Davies would solve a number of short and medium term problems for Celtic.
Kris Ajer has shown no signs of agreeing a contract extension, bringing in Davies and hoping to have Chris Jullien back before the end of the season would provide some continuity going into next season.
If Davies can be signed he can go straight into the team in place of Nir Bitton or Shane Duffy allowing Ajer to continue at right-back following the transfer of Jeremie Frimpong to Bayer Leverkusen.