Mark Devlin 
Celtic are interested in signing Nottingham Forest midfielder Henri Lansbury, according to a report from the Nottingham Post.
The 26-year-old was subject of a £2.5m bid from Derby County earlier this week but Forest rejected that and Aston Villa are waiting to hear back about their £3m offer.
With his contract set to expire in the summer, it’s likely that the Nottingham side will sell Lansbury to the highest bidder, although they’d probably prefer it if he was sold to a club outside of the Championship.
Watford are reported to be interested in the former Arsenal star and it looks like Brendan Rodgers is a fan too and Villa would much prefer to sell him to either Celtic or the Hornets rather than a divisional rival.
Rodgers is keen to get some business done in January as he has learnt from the summer that he needs players in place for the July Champions League qualifiers. Therefore, it looks like he’d be willing to pay a small fee to sign the midfielder rather than hoping to get him on a free when his deal expires, which could take a lot of time to negotiate, meaning he misses those crucial European ties.
Lansbury has been with Forest since 2012 and has played over 150 games for them in that time but it looks like he’s now seeking a new challenge and the chance of playing in the Champions League could be a major draw.
