As the transfer window approaches, Celtic are already being linked with various targets across Europe and afar.
The latest in a long line of transfer rumours is that Hearts and Scotland defender John Souttar is on the Parkhead radar and as reports surfaced last week that it would only take an offer of £500,000 to obtain the services of Souttar, it was widely expected that the Hoops would make their move in January.
Not so says Hearts manager Robbie Nielson. According to a report from The Herald, the Hearts boss is adamant the Scotland stopper is going nowhere unless the bid is too huge to turn down, “From our perspective he’s here until the end of the season unless we get a bid that we can’t refuse.
“Hopefully within that time we can negotiate a new contract. The owner and Joe Savage have been speaking to him and we’ve made him a really good offer, so it’s just a case of trying to negotiate that.
“He’s still a Hearts player and we’ve had good negotiations with him. We’ll try as hard as we can to get him to stay.
“If he does decide it’s time to move on, it will take a huge bid in January for that to happen, or he’ll see out his contract and hopefully leave happy.
“He is a key player who will hopefully help us finish as high up the league as we can and go as far as we can in the cup, so you have to balance off the two sides of it and say ‘what is keeping him (until the end of the season) worth?’ and ‘what is a transfer worth?’
“From my perspective as a coach, I’ll be pushing to keep him here for as long as I can because he’s such a key part of the team.”
As the Hearts gaffer seems to be digging his heels in, what price would the Celtic board be willing to pay for a player that is out of contract in six months time?
Knowing how our board do business, the answer to that would be, not enough.