Now that we're a few weeks removed from the end of the Euros it could be considered quite surprising that none of the Irish squad have yet agreed a move to a new club, despite several of Martin O'Neill's squad being linked with a rake of different clubs.
Robbie Brady has been linked with Leicester for over a month now, while Jeff Hendrick is on Burnley's radar and Darren Randolph appears to be trading the bench at West Ham for the bench. There have been murmurs about whether Shane Duffy, heroic against Italy and slightly less-so against France, will be hanging around in the Championship much longer with Brendan Rodgers said to be weighing up the possibility of adding him to the defensive ranks at Celtic.
Blackburn Rovers boss shoots down rumours of Celtic raid for Shane Duffyhttps://t.co/OB4cL3H7Vm pic.twitter.com/Yc5J9iMO4g
— Lancashire Telegraph (@lancstelegraph) July 22, 2016
Rodgers has added just one player, Moussa Dembele, to his squad ahead of the new season and judging by Efe Ambrose's unconvincing impersonation of a centre half in Celtic's abysmal display in the first match against Lincoln Red Imps in the Champions League qualification stages, significant reinforcements are required at the back if Celtic are to be in any way competetive in Europe this season.
Duffy could fit the bill. Speculation suggests that £4 million will be enough to prize the Derryman away from Blackburn, though Owen Coyle is remaining entirely non-committal on the possibility at this stage.
Speaking to the Lancashire Telegraph, Coyle said:
In regards to Shane, there’s been no concrete offers from Celtic, in terms of a written offer, so that’s the only thing I can class as interest. If there’s other people speculating, then I can’t really comment on that.
I only deal in the facts and the fact is there’s been no concrete offer from Glasgow Celtic for Shane Duffy.
That is football talk for 'we haven't received a formal offer yet, but they have been in contact' so you can expect to see further developments on this in the coming weeks.
