Celtic reject Monaco bid for Larsson

MARTIN O’NEILL faces more frustration in his bid to make a transfer deadline day signing — but the good news is that Henrik Larsson looks set to stay after the club rejected a bold approach by Monaco.

The Swedish international showed just how big a loss he will be when he leaves the club at the end of the season after a brilliant hat-trick in Saturday’s 5-1 demolition of Livingston at Parkhead.

But it has emerged that French league club Monaco made an audacious bid to lure him away. Monaco’s sporting director Henri Biancheri revealed: “We contacted Celtic at the beginning of the week to ask if Henrik could be transferred, but the price was too high. We also asked about a loan, but the matter is closed for now.”

O’Neill is frantically trying to do business to bring in a new face for their Champions League campaign. Manchester City striker Darren Huckerby is believed to have turned down the chance of a loan move while Blackburn Rovers moved for Italian veteran Dino Baggio.

Celtic have also been interested in signing Motherwell starlet James McFadden for some time.

Celtic board let O’Neill splash out some of the guaranteed £10 million they will receive from Champions League matches with Bayern Munich, Lyon and Anderlecht.

Meanwhile, Rangers manager Alex McLeish praised his weary stars for producing a happy ending to an exhausting but crucial week’s activity.

In their first SPL game since clinching a place in the Champions League with a midweek win over FC Copenhagen, Rangers required two late goals to defeat bottom club Dundee United 3-1 and regain top spot from Celtic.

Nuno Capucho had fired Rangers into an early lead and plenty of other opportunities were spurned by the away side before the break.

But United rallied and ex-Ranger Billy Dodds equalised before late goals from Shota Arveladze and Mikel Arteta, won the day.

Kilmarnock manager Jim Jefferies urged goal hero Kris Boyd to take a leaf out of John Hartson and Chris Sutton’s book and add aggression to his game.

The striker scored a fine goal out of the blue to rescue a 1-1 draw for Kilmarnock after Nacho Novo had put Dundee ahead at Rugby Park. But Jefferies insists Boyd has still to add some muscle to his game if he is to fulfil his potential.

Craig Levein was full of praise for Dennis Wyness after the Hearts striker opened his account for the club with a spectacular solo effort in the 1-0 win over Dunfermline.

The former Inverness man gathered the ball and went on a mazy run past three Pars defenders before slotting it beyond Derek Stillie.

Wyness, a summer signing from Inverness, had failed to find the net in Hearts’ three previous games and was starting to come in for some criticism from his own supporters.

However, after watching him in training, Levein was never in any doubt Wyness had the quality to succeed at SPL level.