Club End Push For Celtic Star | OneFootball

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English League One outfit Plymouth Argyle have ended their pursuit of Celtic defender Stephen Welsh, according to Sky Sports News.

The 25-year-old centre-back is a product of the Celtic academy system but he failed to establish himself in their starting line-up.

In the second half of the last season, Brendan Rodgers sanctioned a loan exit for Welsh to join Belgian outfit KV Mechelen, where he made 17 appearances.

This summer Welsh has been attracting suitors south of the border in the form of Plymouth Argyle, who are keen to take him on loan.

Argyle were relegated to League One last season and have had a difficult start to the campaign under their new boss Tom Cleverley.

It has been suggested that Plymouth’s loan offer consists of an option to make the deal permanent in the upcoming summer.

Celtic delayed Welsh’s deal as they wanted to have a clear idea on their outgoing international loans before they sanctioned it.

Now it has been claimed that Argyle have effectively ended their pursuit of Welsh as they have managed to land an alternative.

Cleverley’s side signed Mathias Ross on a free transfer on Thursday to make him their third centre-back addition of the summer.

The Bhoys have already sanctioned three international loans in the form of Luis Palma, Greg Taylor and Maik Nawrocki and have three foreign loan spots left.

Celtic were negotiating a loan deal with Rapid Vienna for Marco Tilio but they changed the nature of the deal to permanent transfer to keep their remaining international loan spots open.

With the arrival of Hayato Inamura and Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, Welsh is down the pecking order at Celtic.

Plymouth could lose one of their defensive rocks, Victor Palsson .