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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Pt7...How can you say that a settled squad wins leagues...how many have the gers won in the last 4 years and have Rangers not spent more money every summer in the last 4 years too?
The silence from ibrox is because we are champions you idiots and unlike you lot we do our business quietly so we don't look like a bunch of amateurs like lawell reid and Co when mediocre players decide to join the championship instead of the spl runners up lol. We don't have millions in the bank and im glad we have been down the road of lavishing money on average players and it got us nowhere but i still think there will be a couple of players coming in and money does'nt win trophies a settled squad and team spirit will thats why we are champions and playing in the champions league if your lucky i might watch you getting horsed in the Europa league .
this guy was making a decision a week ago, now its another day or so. Come on Celtic you let fletcher go now I fear waiting on Fortune may well backfire. He may still end up in the EPL. Surely there are other targets out there.
Good luck to Paul Hartley, wee chesney never let him play the supporting role he played best. Still made a decent job playing the holding role.
HAIL HAIL!
paul jvoh lets hope theres a few more taxis waiting on the london road and does anyone think giving owen a try jvoh and samarases wages could be put to the deal and if he was only fit half of the season you would still double there goal tally
HERE WE ARE AGAIN RUNIN ABOOT WAE WERE ERSE IN THE AIR AND LAWWELL BLAWIN STOOR UP IT
HOW LONG DOSE IT TAKE THIS FECKIN LOT TO GET A PLAYER
Cmon guys this silence from Rangers is shocking.....Celtic have been in the news all summer so far and it looks as if the signings are now on there way....the gers fans will slate them but whats new.....HOWEVER not one word from Wattie, Ally, Kenny, SDM or Bain re new players etc at IBROKE Park......lights go out, walls come tumbling down
Not annoyed about JVOH he started off bad and fell away, but genuinely sorry to see Paul Hartley go, didn't get much of a run with GS when he was fit. I just hope Fortune doesn't find the going too tough in the SPL, coming from WBA, chances are he will, so we'll have another also ran story to contend with. I don't think he's exactly set the heather on fire wherever he's been, but Mowbray has faith in him; it'll be the first test of the new manager's judgement. Mind you there might be a few more twists to be had in the story, he's not here yet!!
he'll be a bhoy =D
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