Celtic fringe players Scott Allan and Ryan Christie could be offered to Hibernian as part of a cash-plus-player bid for John McGinn, after the Bhoys' third bid for the Scottish international was rejected, according to the Sun.

What's the story, then?

The Sun report that after seeing bids of £1.5m and £1.75m turned down by Neil Lennon, the Scottish champions came back with a £2m offer on Thursday, but that was refused as well.

They say that Hibs are holding out for £4m for the midfielder, and one potential solution to allow Celtic to get their man without abandoning their frugal approach could be to offer Allan, Christie or both in exchange.

They claim that Lennon could be tempted by that arrangement. According to Transfermarkt, the duo's combined value comes to a smidgen over £1m, with Allan valued at £450,000 and Christie at £630,000.

Celtic must shake up their approach

At the moment, Celtic's approach seems to be making little headway; upping their bid by £250,000 at a time is unsurprisingly not impressing Hibs when their valuation is double Rodgers' latest offering.

It is understandable that Rodgers wants to be careful with his budget - although the sale of Stuart Armstrong has armed him with a sizeable figure with which to bid - so Allan and Christie represent an interesting alternative.

Predominantly, that is because even if Hibs have £4m to spend, it is unlikely they could lure a player good enough to be worth that fee to the club, so securing a smaller windfall but landing two midfield replacements in the same deal could well be tempting.

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