Yahoo News Birmingham City show transfer interest in midfielder pitched to Celtic and Rangers
Birmingham City are among the clubs interested in Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder Marc Leonard, BirminghamLive understands.
Leonard is attracting transfer interest after a stellar League One campaign with Northampton Town, where he scored five goals and recorded six assists. The 22-year-old has spent the last two seasons on loan with the Cobblers from Premier League Brighton and could make a permanent move away now that he has entered the final 12 months of his contract.
Blues are searching for durable footballers this summer and Leonard was virtually ever-present in League One last season. He started all 46 games for 14th-placed Northampton, playing 4,130 of a possible 4,140 minutes.
It is claimed that a fee of £300,000 could be enough to capture Leonard but Blues are not alone in their admiration. Championship sides Sheffield United and Oxford United have been linked with Leonard, as have Blues’ League One rivals Wrexham.
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The Scotland under-21 starlet has even been pitched to Celtic and Rangers, whom he represented as a youngster, by his former Northampton manager Jon Brady. Brady told the Daily Record: "I feel for the here and now and for the longer term I would say Marc Leonard is one that both Rangers and Celtic should be looking at.
"I know both teams have a lot of talent in the midfield but Marc is an outstanding young Scottish player. I believe he can go all the way to the top and if Rangers or Celtic were to come in for him then I feel he has the talent to flourish for either side.
"He is beyond us now and rightly so. There is a lot of interest in him from the English Championship. Certainly with the ability he has, for me, he has to be testing himself, at least in the Championship. He would be a huge asset to any team in that league.
"The improvement in him has been scary. He came as a very good technical player but now he has gone up so many levels. He has risen to every challenge we gave him and in the end, he was just grabbing games by the scruff of the neck and being a real difference maker. He came as a young player but has left Northampton as a man."
