Chelsea closing in on Celtic goalkeeper

CHELSEA have made a second bid, worth £4million, for Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon and are growing in confidence that the Scotland international will sign.

Coach Antonio Conte will only let his second-choice keeper Asmir Begovic be sold to Bournemouth if he can sign a replacement before the transfer window closes tomorrow night.

Gordon is Chelsea’s main target and they had an offer worth £3m rejected by Celtic last week, with coach Brendan Rodgers insisting he was not for sale.

However, it is understood that Gordon is interested in making the switch to the Premier League leaders and that Rodgers’ stance has now changed significantly.

While he continues to say Celtic don’t want to let Gordon go, the manager has suggested they will do a deal if the price is right.

“Chelsea have an interest in him but for any interest to be activated there has to be a valuation of the player that has to be met,” he said. “We don’t want to sell him, of course, but if there’s [anything] that would make Celtic think, then there has to be an offer that would allow us to do that as a club. And what came in was nowhere near that level.”

Although Celtic will offer the 34year-old a new contract, Chelsea can pay much more than his current £12,000-a-week salary.

Paris St Germain goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu is another possibility should the Gordon deal fall through. Conte knows the 30year-old well, having selected him while manager of Italy. Sirigu is on loan at Sevilla from PSG, but is not happy at the La Liga club.