BRENDAN RODGERS has made an approach to his old club Liverpool for right-back Jon Flanagan.
The Celtic boss is an admirer of the 23-year-old defender and is looking to be reunited with the England international.
Initially, Rodgers had planned to pay a rental fee for the player and take Flanagan on loan for the season with the view to making the deal permanent if everything worked out.
However, the Anfield side are only willing to enter negotiations if a permanent offer is put on the table.
Flanagan’s development at Anfield has been halted by injuries over the past two years and he made only eight first team appearances last season.
The Liverpool-born full-back – nicknamed ‘the Scouse Cafu’ after the legendary Brazilian – sat out the entire campaign the previous year with a complicated knee injury. He has played only 50 top team games since breaking into the team in as an 18-year-old when Kenny Dalglish was in charge during the 2010/11 season.
Flanagan is under contract at the Merseyside club until 2019 and is also being eyed by Premier League new boys Burnley.
Meanwhile the Celtic manager will have to substantially increase his outlay of he is to secure the services of Irish defender Shane Duffy from Blackburn Rovers.
The player has plenty of admirers among English clubs with Fulham the latest to join the race for the Derry man’s signature with an offer of around £3.5m being discussed.
The player may well prefer to hold off for a dream move to play for Brendan Rodgers and Celtic may attempt to close in on a deal by throwing a few players into a cash plus player offer.
New Blackburn manager Owen Coyle is an admirer of James Forrest, while Gary Mackay-Steven may be another who could be offloaded.
Swansea, Bournemouth and West Brom have also been linked with Duffy.
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