Celtic and Rangers make major transfer moves as £8.5m deals for World Cup star and winger pursued

The combined outlay of the Old Firm so far during this transfer window is around £45million, a figure which is set to rise amid reports of significant impending outlay on further new additions.

Celtic have already spent £27m recruiting Camilo Duran, Kasper Hogh, Mika Baur and Haissem Hassan, but remain in profit after banking around £35m for the sales of Daizen Maeda, Arne Engels, Luis Palma and Maik Nawrocki.

Rangers, by comparison, are in the red having splashed out £17.5m on 11 new additions - goalkeeper Ivan Pandur the most expensive at £6m - while recouping around £11.6m from the departures of Mohamed Diomande, Oliver Antman and Jack Butland.

Celtic are keen to add another midfielder following the sale of Engels to West Ham and are in advanced talks with Czech side Slovan Liberec over an £8.5m deal (£7m plus £1.5m add-ons) for 21-year-old Ermin Mahmic.

The Bosnia-Herzegovina international, who impressed at the World Cup this summer, scoring two goals, has reportedly said his goodbyes to his team-mates ahead of an impending exit.

Rangers, meanwhile, are weighing up their own £8.5m move for Girona winger Kim Min-Su.

That is the figure quoted as being required to activate the release clause for the 20-year-old South Korean, who spent last season on loan at Spanish second division outift Andorra FC, where he contribued six goals and four assists in 40 appearances.

Min-Su is one of a number of targets Rangers are pursuing in the forward areas as they look to strengthen their attack following an unconvincing start to the season under new manager Derek McInnes.

“We're trying in a few different areas to get the right players in, players with the right quality,” McInnes said after the 1-0 win over Jablonec in the Conference League play-off first leg on Thursday night. “We've been really focused on certain ones. I'm quite hopeful we can do one in the next few days.”

Elsewhere, Hibs are in talks with Manchester United over a season-long loan move for Jacob Devaney.

The 19-year-old midfielder, who spent the second half of last season on loan at St Mirren, has featured in Manchester United friendlies against Wrexham and Rosenborg this summer but will be farmed out to gain further first-team experience.

Hearts are also closing in on the signing of American striker JJ Williams from Rhode Island. The 28-year-old is due to undergo a medical this weekend before completing a £100,000 transfer from the USL.

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