Nottingham Forest, Stoke City, Celtic and Rangers handed transfer warning ahead of January | OneFootball

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·26 November 2021

Nottingham Forest, Stoke City, Celtic and Rangers handed transfer warning ahead of January

Article image:Nottingham Forest, Stoke City, Celtic and Rangers handed transfer warning ahead of January

Hearts manager Robbie Neilson has admitted to Sky Sports that his side have no plans to sell John Souttar this summer, despite the increasing interest he is accumulating.

The defender has attracted the attention of a whole host of Championship clubs, with Rangers and Celtic also monitoring the 25-year-old’s situation in Edinburgh.


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Souttar’s contract with Hearts expires in the summer, meaning those clubs in pursuit will be looking to strike a deal for the young defender on the cheaper side of things.

However,  unless they receive a “huge” offer.

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“From our perspective, he’s here until the end of the season unless we get a bid that we can’t refuse,” said the Hearts boss.

“Hopefully within that time, we can negotiate a new contract. The owner and Joe Savage have been speaking to him and we’ve made him a really good offer, so it’s just a case of trying to negotiate that.

“He’s still a Hearts player and we’ve had good negotiations with him. We’ll try as hard as we can to get him to stay.

“If he does decide it’s time to move on, it will take a huge bid in January for that to happen, or he’ll see out his contract and hopefully leave happy.

“He is a key player who will hopefully help us finish as high up the league as we can and go as far as we can in the cup, so you have to balance off the two sides of it and say ‘what is keeping him [until the end of the season] worth?’ and ‘what is a transfer worth?’

“From my perspective as a coach, I’ll be pushing to keep him here for as long as I can because he’s such a key part of the team.”

Souttar has been proving himself for club and country and it is no surprise to see the increasing amount of interest in him.

Not only does he possess all the physical attributes needed to succeed as a central defender, but he is also a good and composed figure whilst in possession.

It remains to be seen if any of the teams who are in pursuit can fork out a fee that Hearts will consider a huge amount.

There is no denying that Souttar can go and impress at the top end of the Championship or with the Scottish giants, so it should be an intriguing race for the 25-year-old.

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