Celtic look set to lose another of their youth prospects Ronan Ferns.
This is according to a report from the Daily Record which states that the 16-year-old has agreed to join Brighton, with the English Premier League side paying Celtic £250k in fees plus additional add-ons. Barring any late hitches in the deal, Ferns will join the Seagulls this summer.
Ferns had not yet signed professional terms with his club, which gave the English side the go-ahead to make their move for the Scotland youth defender.
According to the report, Celtic were keen to keep a hold of the player, so this comes as a blow for the club.
He joins a growing list of players that Celtic have lost to clubs at the development stage, such as Barry Hepburn and Liam Morrison to Bayern Munich and Ben Doak to Liverpool.
The 16-year-old will initially join up with Brighton’s under-23 and development side, before trying to impress Roberto De Zerbi if and when he makes the step up to the first team.
Meanwhile, Ally McCoist admits Brendan Rodgers' Celtic return is bad news for Rangers and Michael Beale.
The Northern Irishman was confirmed as Hoops boss this week as he replaces Ange Postecoglou who departed Glasgow for Tottenham Hotspur.
McCoist is a huge fan of Rodgers and he insists the dominance of Celtic during his last spell in Glasgow is sparking fear amongst the Gers support.
He explained on talkSPORT: "Within Scottish football it’s a kind of no-brainer decision because he’s a top class coach and manager.
"He knows the club really well and was extremely successful before so that alone makes it an obvious choice and a pretty good choice in my book.
"However, as has been well documented, there’s a certain section of the Celtic support who made it clear they were not happy with Brendan when he left.”
Aston Villa hero Gabby Agbonlahor then asked McCoist whether the appointment is good or bad news for Rangers. Coisty continued: "I’d have thought it was bad news, yeah, for the reasons I’ve given.
"But Rangers and Michael Beale can’t afford to start thinking about what’s going on across the city. They have to concentrate on themselves and that’s bringing four or five players in.”
Host Alan Brazil then added: “I wouldn’t worry about it, you’ll still finish second anyway."
And McCoist replied: “We’ll win it this year.”
