Loan deal may offer Tottenham best chance of signing SPL star

Along with Manchester United, Tottenham are somewhat of a rare breed among the Premier League big guns as they possess players that provide genuine width and creativity from the wide areas.

Therefore, it seems slightly surprising that it is not the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea that are closer to the front of the queue to potentially sign James Forrest from Celtic.

Forrest has become one of the biggest young talents in the Scottish game since breaking through at Celtic in 2009 and is arguably now their leading source of creativity.

This has unsurprisingly resulted in Premier League interest, but it is Tottenham who are the keenest to secure his signature, as they look for cover in case either Gareth Bale or Aaron Lennon are injured.

However, with Celtic reluctant to sell and Forrest himself hopeful of winning some more trophies in Scotland before moving south, it would take a substantial offer to generate interest.

Never one to pay over the odds in the transfer market, Tottenham are reportedly keen to offer no more than £5m for Forrest, but Celtic rate him in the same league as Aiden McGeady, who was previously bought by Spartak Moscow for around £9.5m.

Therefore, any discussions appear to have hit a dead end, but Tottenham could boost their chances of pushing through a deal before the end of the transfer window if agreeing to send out Roman Pavlyuchenko on loan.

Pavlyuchenko has previously been of interest to Celtic and a striker would definitely be of assistance to them now as they look to repel the title challenge of Rangers.

Celtic are also clearly interested in securing striking reinforcements after having an approach to bring in Stoke’s Kenwyne Jones on loan turned down.

Tottenham’s odds are 22/1 at present to win the Premier League this season and Forrest would provide something of the unknown to help in this quest.