Tony Mowbray hopes to make Marc-Antoine Fortune his first Celtic signing in the next 48 hours after confirming Paul Hartley and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink have left the club.
Celtic have offered the Nancy striker a contract but face competition from the likes of Hull, Portsmouth and Fulham.
Fortune worked under Mowbray during a loan spell at West Brom last season and the Celtic manager is hopeful their personal relationship will work in his favour.
"Everything is in the balance," Mowbray told a media conference at Celtic's Lennoxtown training ground.
"I think it will happen naturally over the next day or two. I'll either be sitting watching him shaking someone's hand and holding a shirt up somewhere at an English Premier League club, or you will all come back here in a few days' time and meet the guy yourself."
Mowbray is working on other potential deals after releasing out-of-contract pair Hartley and Vennegoor of Hesselink.
He added: "I had a good long conversation with Paul. He came in to see me.
"The outcome of that is Paul won't be offered a new contract. He is free to look for other employment.
"I have had no contact with Jan. Jan is out of contract - he is free to seek other employment and I'm pretty sure that's what he will be doing at the moment."
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#23 point 1 - dont need 1
point 2- not as yet
point 3- again not yet
point 4- yes actually we do
point 5- couldnt care less about what you want
Pts 23,25 couldn't have put it better myself.
A positive solid attitude Mogga,exciting time at Paradise lays ahead i feel.
Good luck to both players wherever they end up.
Big Jan had a poor, injury plagued season after 2 quite decent ones and Hartley was always gonna be a squad player imo.
#21 Totally agree with you Lysdexic - Real Madrid might have all these top names, but it's a team game and they all have to gel - And Ronaldo has the biggest ego in the world - Well second only to Drugbam... That kind of agrees too with Saltire that squad continuity and togetherness can massively help a Championship campaign. If we were perfectly honest, apart from Loovens and Hinkel, the bigger buys simply haven't turned on the style this season... To me, the homegrown players like Scott Brown and Gary Caldwell have been our better players... And the Youth System has certainly worked with Darren O' Dea and a few others... It's the only way Scottish Clubs can compete just now - And probably in the future... Just hope we don't end up like an Ajax type team.
Pt18...Now we know where Paul G gets his world acclaimed coaching / talent skills from YOU TUBE....fookin hell someone call Tony Mowbray and tell him to log on for some quality players
Pt20....Welcome in to the Sensible Football discussion club m8...Compared to other well funded leagues we are dross however my team plays in the SPL and thats were my heart lies...half the idiotic comments on here come from the people who dont under stand the finances that are involved with teams like Celtic and Rangers...I have been saying it for a long time now...I would rather have a
1) New management team
2) Money to spend
3) Be Debt free
4) A good youth development set up or the people to drive it
5) Football the way all Celtic fans want our teams to play
This is not a slur just a FACT.....Got any of the above at Ibrox
#3...............here here and hail hail
#20 As far as I'm concerned the terms idiot and English are synonymous when they start to discuss Scottish football; but we all know up here what our failings are and at this time it boils down to pound notes; EPL and the Championship get bigger TV and sponsorship deals than virtually everyone in Scotland, so they can afford to buy the players they need to do the job; we can't. When we start to identify good talent young enough, have faith in our own youth systems, with top class coaching in place, and we place proper emphasis on properly developing teams rather than individuals, we'll be able to compete with the best. You might call me a numpty, (that's been done before), but watch Real Madrid this season, I honestly believe that there are so many individuals there that they will not be able to play together for some considerable time and there is a great danger that the team will implode.
lysdexic and stuart lets be honest here you get the odd occassional English idiot on here telling us how poor our league is but the truth is they are right so if this boy Fortune is a quality player then bring it on i would rather watch some good football players than the s hit that has been getting served up to rangers and celtic over the last 5 - 6 years it would only raise the calibre of player we have to bring in and when we beat you it will be all the sweeter i would trust Mowbrays judgement he has got an eye for a player and if he turns his back on the money from down south then it is good business all round.
Why bring in worse than you have got?
Been watching him play on youtube. He's rank
Pt16...how many times you seen him play????
PLEASE sign, the guy is rank rotten and a waste of money. Samaras is better and thats saying something.
Pt10...no they have not and yes thank you for Loovens, pity u could not afford him....never mind u will still have quality there when the season starts...NOT
#13 That's what we live for on this board, well thought out and reasoned argument where posts are respectful of each other's opinion, contain at least a smidgen of original thought, and no-one resorts to name calling. A real breath of fresh air.
Lysdexic i never said we would make any impact on the champions league i said we are in it you t urd rangers nor celtic will make the last 8 there is to big a gap between the big leagues in Europe and the Scottish league but enjoy your qualifier any way its probably the only champions league football you will see unless you watch Glasgow rangers i said i am not kidding myself but i think you are son.
#7 Quiet because there is nothing to talk about! Absolutely zip! A team full of average players who won an average league against teams of an even lower average. If you think that you will make any impact on the Champions League with the calibre of players that you have, or that you are likely to afford, you are delusional. But then, like all other delusional people, if you repeat things over and over to yourself you begin to believe them; especially when you have a squad of sycophants at your back repeating the same stuff as you. You'll get your quota of games in the Champions League, you earned that right, but thus far that's all you've earned. We'll see what the season brings.
Stuart the windae licker are you sure you are a true celtic man because you don't seem to now much about your players also every player walter smith mentioned at one point Gordon strachan got in to celtic why money thats why you have it we don't im not kidding myself on thats football and makes good business sence but your team are in danger if you spend to much you will end up with big debt like rangers thats why Mowbray has a budget and will do his best with it.
Apart from maybe the last 2 years celtic have spent more than rangers and had a settled squad rangers after McLeish have been constantly changing players and yes we had to spend after leguen left or we would be playing in the 1st division by now Scott brown 4 million Glen loovens thank you for taking him Crosas, Donati, Samaras, Robson, Mc Court, Mizuno, McDonald, Maloney, Killen, a few quid there mate not to mention Boruc Nakamura.
Saltire...total horlicks...every summer since i can remember SDM has been mouthing off that he is going to spend to ensure the gers retain the title or get it back and credit to him he has spent more than Celtic, however NOT a word from Wattie, Ally, Kenny, Bain or SDM for nearly 7 weeks now....lights go out, walls come tumbling down.....
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