What Celtic asked Antoine Semenyo’s agent about Bristol City star amid transfer race

The agent of Bristol City star Antoine Semenyo has confirmed that Celtic have held early discussions over signing the in-form striker.

Despite a two-month lay off due to injury, Semenyo has been one of the top performers this season, earning 14 goal contributions with eight assists and six goals, building up a formidable partnership with Andreas Weimann.

His performances have not gone amiss from the outside world though, in February, it was exclusively reported by BristolWorld that a scout had been sent to Ashton Gate to watch over Semenyo, who netted in the 2-1 win over Reading.

Now there is a development on the matter with Gavin Strachan, the scout in question, asked his representative Tony Finnigan of a character profile of the 22-year-old.

"I had a conversation with Strachan who rang up to ask little bits of info on the player and a bit about how I found him and what he’s like as a lad,” Tony Finnigan said to Football Scotland.

"That was it. If it’s something they’re going to do in the summer window I’m not sure but it’s nice to know that his talents are going as far as Scotland to one of the great institutions in world football. "There’s not really much more to say than that."

As well as the interview, Football Scotland now say that Austrian outfit RB Leipzig are also interested in Semenyo, adding to a growing list of Bournemouth, Celtic, Nottingham Forest and Watford.

Salzburg are the runaway leaders of the Austrian Bundesliga and are on course for their ninth consecutive title and over the years have provided a platform for the likes of Sadio Mane, Naby Keita and prodigy Erling Haaland.

This season they reached the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League after navigating their way past the qualifiers, so this would be a chance to play on European football’s biggest stage.

From Finnigan’s comments, talks of a move to Celtic are at a premature stage with the Glasgow club simply just testing the waters and wanting to get a better idea of what player Semenyo is.

A visit to his home ground as well as an inquiry of his character, is just an interested party wanting to get a closer look at the player.

Both Nigel Pearson and Curtis Fleming have spoken previously of their desire to keep their best young talent at the club with the latter not entertaining the idea of losing any players this summer.

When interest emerged in February, Pearson issued a hands-off warning by saying: “We’re very glad we have him and if somebody else wants him he’s going to cost them an awful lot of dough so keep your hands off. We’ve got him for two-and-a-half years.

“Of course, we want to retain his services for as long as we can. He’s currently got a year-and-a-half left with a year’s option in our favour so we’ve got him for two-and-a-half years to at least persuade him to stay, whether that materialises or not I can’t give you a definitive answer.

“But we have time to work on those possibilities but I can’t speak for other people’s intentions and it will take a lot of money to get him out the building.”

Semenyo is contracted to the Robins until the summer of 2023 and in February, the club began contract talks to extend that, with a 12-month option available to activate.

Given the financial situation however given the recent losses the club announced, City may be unable to fend off a bid if it works for them.

They already rejected a Deadline Day bid from league rivals Nottingham Forest, but with there being more time to navigate in the summer window, interest could re-emerge from the Reds and other interested parties.