Celtic risk losing homegrown prodigy to Sunderland as Rangers enter ‘key talks’ to kickstart January rebuild

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers is adamant that the Scottish Premiership title race is ‘nowhere near done’ despite his side’s narrow 1-0 victory away to title rivals Aberdeen.

In a tight and cagey evening at Pittodrie, Celtic emerged victorious in a fierce contest which was dubbed by commentators as the Battle in the Blizzard, due to the harsh conditions which hampered both side’s ability to produce any kind of magic in the final third.The victory leaves Celtic seven points clear of Aberdeen with a game in hand, and with a seemingly insurmountable position at the summit.

Rangers, of course, will be keen to challenge that assumption and in Philippe Clement’s eyes showed the ‘outside world’ exactly what they are capable of by hammering a hapless Kilmarnock side by 6-0 at Ibrox.

The Light Blues will look to keep that momentum going in their next match against Ross County, while Celtic will be targeting a seventh consecutive league victory when they play host to strugglers Hibs.

Ahead of another riveting weekend of Premiership action, we round-up the latest talking points from Celtic and Rangers.

Celtic risk losing homegrown Kyogo successor

Celtic wonderkid Daniel Cummings has emerged as a top transfer target for Championship promotion hopefuls Sunderland amid uncertainty surrounding his long-term future in Glasgow.

The 18-year-old, who scored 32 times in 43 games for Celtic’s B team last term, is regarded as one of the hottest prospects in Scottish football and is seen as someone with the capabilities of one day succeeding Kyogo Furuhashi as the team’s main man in attack if he continues on his current trajectory.

The forward, who has netted in five goals in five matches at UEFA Youth League level this term, was watched by Black Cats scouts last time out, according to reports from the Sunderland Echo.

Meanwhile, Football Insider adds that Wolves, Fulham, Ipswich and Burnley are all keeping close tabs on the youngster.

Cummings signed his first professional contract during the summer of 2022 but now has just six months remaining on his existing deal as talks over an extension continue to stall.

The prolific forward is free to speak to clubs outside of Scotland from 1 January 2025 and could follow youngsters such as Watford's Rocca Vatta and Millwall’s Daniel Kelly in the list of promising youngsters to trade Celtic’s academy for the prospect of playing south of the border.

Rangers boss confirms ‘big discussions’ are taking place

Rangers manager Philippe Clement has revealed that he wants to kickstart key transfer discussions this week as he plans ahead to what is likely to be another busy January transfer window.

The Belgian’s side are trailing by 11 points in this year’s title race but are slowly starting to find form in recent weeks after hammering both Nice in the Europa League and Kilmarnock in their most recent Premiership outing.

Clement told Glasgow Times: "We're going to have big discussions about what we're going to need in January and of course what the budget will be because everything stands or falls with the budget and we felt that in the summer transfer window also in that way, that we wanted more things that we could do.

"That was the reality. So we will see what the budget is now and my job is to get the best out of the squad available, to get the best out of everybody in that way, but also to push to make it better.

"But we will see how these talks will go in the next week."