Central defender Steve Cook will be one of Eddie Howe’s first transfer targets if he becomes the new Celtic manager.
The Sun has been ahead of the curve on the Howe story and claim that the 29-year-old Bournemouth skipper is a transfer target and could even captain Celtic next season.
Central defence is an area of the squad that requires immediate attention with a shortage of numbers and quality.
Kris Ajer is likely to be sold in the summer rather than enter the final year of his contract while Chris Jullien may not recover from knee surgery until September.
That would leave Stephen Welsh as the only central defender at the club with The Sun reporting:
CELTIC manager-in-waiting Eddie Howe will target Bournemouth captain Steve Cook as one of his key summer transfers.
Cook was a defensive warrior for Howe at the Vitality Stadium during the Cherries’ rise from League One to the top flight.
And the 29-year-old, approaching 400 games for Bournemouth over ten years, will be available on a free as his contract is up in June.
The unflinching Cook was linked with West Ham last October but stayed put as the Cherries try to return to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
They are currently just outside the Championship play-off zone. The feeling is Cook will leave if they fail to go back up, but even with promotion he could find it hard to reject a Howe reunion at Celtic.
Cook moved to Bournemouth from Brighton in January 2012, working with Howe through both of his spells in charge of Bournemouth.
Celtic were interested in signing Ben Davies from Preston during January but their hopes died when Liverpool’s defensive crisis forced them into snapping up the hoops target.