SPL: Celtic back in hunt for Kachloul

Celtic entered the race to sign Southampton midfielder Hassan Kachloul after the player's agent extended the deadline for clubs to bid.

Derby County and another unnamed English club have also expressed a firm interest in snaring the Moroccan.

And Kachloul has already privately decided which club he wants to join.

Agent Eric Castagnino originally set a deadline of 5pm for clubs to make their interests known.

But he extended that to 7:30pm and later confirmed that Martin O'Neill had followed up his initial interest in the player who becomes a free agent at the end of the month.

"There's three British clubs interested, two of which are Derby and Celtic," said Castagnino.

"As one of the three clubs is clearly a very big club he would prefer to join them.

"Obviously, if a move to that club doesn't materialise then he will have to choose between the other two."

He now looks set to leave before the currently-managerless Saints move to their new St Mary's stadium.