As reports circulate this morning about Bayer Leverkusen’s interest in young Celtic starlet, Daniel Kelly, the Parkhead club will still be keen to bat off competition to keep their young academy prospect.
We discussed yesterday how you Kelly, along with Rocco Vata, were offered an improved deal to extend their Parkhead stay.
Kelly previously rejected Celtic’s initial offer a couple of weeks ago but with the youngster keen to stay at Celtic, the club would have been confident of holding onto him.
However, as reports circulated this morning that Bayer Leverkusen had made an approach to Celtic for Kelly, it seems that the club face a very real possibility of the 18-year-old being tempted to swap the SPFL for the Bundesliga.
Bayer Leverkusen see Kelly as a ‘serious talent’
A report from Football Scotland has said that the Bundesliga club have ‘approached’ Celtic and are hoping that a deal can be struck.
However, Brendan Rodgers sees Kelly as one of his first team squad members and is keen to see him stay on at Celtic.
But if the club cannot reach an agreement and Kelly decides to leave on a pre-contract agreement, the club could bank around £500,000 as a development fee.
Obviously Celtic doesn’t want that to happen as Kelly is very highly rated at the club. The Celtic fans will be hoping that terms between the player and the club can be reached and that they will get to see one of the best young academy prospects continue to flourish under Brendan Rodgers.
The Celtic boss has given Kelly six opportunities in the Hoops’ first-team this season and the youngster scored his first-ever goal for the club in the 7-1 thrashing of Dundee. [Transfermarkt]
Hopefully, Celtic can reach a deal with Kelly in the coming days so that this transfer talk can be put to bed ahead of the Scottish Cup final on Saturday.