Celtic are looking to beat both Birmingham and Cardiff to the signing of Ireland international Jonny Hayes.
Stephen McGowan of The Daily Mail reports that Brendan Rodgers is keen to tie up a £1.2m deal which would see the Dubliner join Celtic from Aberdeen.
The Celtic manager is an open admirer of the 29-year-old winger, and earlier this season singled out Hayes as the only legitimate candidate for Scottish Footballer Of The Year to have played outside of Celtic this campaign. The pair previously worked together when Rodgers managed Hayes in Reading's youth team setup. Intriguingly, Rodgers had convinced Hayes to turn down an approach from Celtic and instead join him at Reading at the time.
It's understood Aberdeen are keen to sign Ryan Christie on a permanent basis following the 22-year-old Celtic midfielder's successful loan spell at Pittodrie, and that Christie could be used in order to broker a deal between the two clubs. As per Stephen McGowan in the Mail, however, Aberdeen have already reluctantly accepted that they will lose Hayes this summer.
Incidentally, the three-cap Ireland international today preemptively deleted the majority of his tweets, perhaps in an attempt to banish to the aether any digs in the direction of Parkhead over the years before the online footy banter merchants can get hold of them.
On a doubtless busy day, Hayes was also named in the SPFL Team of the Season this afternoon.
