Celtic to up offer for St Ledger

SOCCER TRANSFER NEWS:CELTIC ARE expected to launch a second bid to sign Republic of Ireland defender Sean St Ledger over the next couple of days, with manager Tony Mowbray now said to be focusing on the 25-year-old following the arrival of Jos Hooived from AIK Solna.

St Ledger’s future has been up in the air since he returned to Preston North End from Middlesbrough last month having gone there on loan with a view to completing a permanent move during the current window.

The problems for the centre half began when Gareth Southgate was dismissed and Gordon Strachan took over. The pair reportedly fell out, prompting St Ledger to call off the deal and Preston to forego most of the agreed €4 million transfer fee.

Celtic offered around €1.4 million for the defender last week with a possible €600,000 or so in potential add-ons but Preston chairman Derek Shaw, who sees the sale of the player as central to his financial plans for the club, insisted Celtic would have to do much better if they were serious about seeing the move go through.

Mowbray is reportedly anxious to do just that and is weighing up how high he can go with his next offer but it is expected that the SPL outfit will add something between €500,000 and €1 million to the value of their bid, most likely within the next couple of days.

Mowbray’s room for manoeuvre will be increased somewhat by the fact the transfers of Gary Caldwell and Barry Robson to Middlesbrough for a combined fee of around €1.8 million looked set to be completed last night.

Dubliner Willo Flood as well as Chris Killen were also undergoing medicals at the Riverside with a view to making loan moves from the Glasgow club as Strachan looks to make changes to a squad that has slipped dangerously down the table since his arrival at the club.

Darren O’Dea, meanwhile, looks likely to spend the second half of the season in England, with the names of his employers also expected to become known over the coming days. Dundee had approached Celtic about taking the 22-year-old defender on loan after it became clear his time at Reading would be curtailed but the player has insisted he would prefer to play in England and two clubs are in talks about a deal for the Irishman.

Former Celtic midfielder Colin Healy could line out against his old club this weekend after Falkirk moved to take him on loan from Ipswich Town. The 29-year-old’s move to Portman Road from Cork City at the end of the summer has not worked out, with the player making just one appearance for the Championship side since the end of August.

A potential move to Hartlepool fell through and now SPL strugglers Falkirk look set to bring him back to Scotland.

Ipswich goalkeeper Brian Murphy faces several weeks on the sidelines after picking up an injury in the warm-up for what was the first game he was eligible to feature in since moving from Bohemians in November.

Roy Keane said: “We’ll have an update in the next 48 hours but ankle ligaments can be very sore. He could be out for weeks.”