Money talks as Celtic win battle to sign Kris Commons

The 27-year-old arrived in Glasgow yesterday to undergo a medical after Celtic agreed an undisclosed fee, believed to be around 300,000, to purchase him from the Championship club.

Barring any late, unexpected complications, Commons will be paraded before the media at a press conference at Celtic Park this lunchtime.

Commons was born in Mansfield, but qualified for Scotland through his grandparents and won the first of his seven caps to date under George Burley in September 2008 against Macedonia. He has scored one international goal, but has been in prolific form for Derby this season, scoring 14 times for Nigel Clough's side.

Rangers had a higher offer for Commons accepted by Derby earlier this week but were unable to agree personal terms with the player, whose contract at Pride Park was due to expire in the summer.

With the Scottish champions still restricted by Lloyds Banking Group's control of their salary and transfer budgets, they were left helpless to prevent Celtic stepping in with a more lucrative contract offer for Commons.

Celtic manager Neil Lennon played alongside Commons for a brief spell at Nottingham Forest four years ago and now has another addition to his already extensive quota of midfield players.

Walter Smith, the Rangers manager, expressed his disappointment at missing out on Commons but sought to play down the significance of the player joining his biggest rivals instead.

"We had been trying to get him in, but we've not got him and that's the main thing," said Smith. "We are obviously disappointed about that.

"Where he goes after that is immaterial. He's not coming to Rangers and that's what we're most concerned about. We'd have liked him to come but it's not going to happen."

The potential strain on Rangers' playing resources in the final four months of the season were further highlighted yesterday with confirmation from the Scottish Football Association that Lee McCulloch has incurred a three-match suspension as a result of the booking he collected in Wednesday night's 2-0 win over Hibs at Easter Road. It was the midfielder's sixth caution of the campaign and he will now have to sit out the SPL matches against Motherwell, Celtic and St Johnstone next month.

Smith has now diverted his attention to other potential targets as he attempts to re-inforce his squad before Monday's transfer deadline. "We will continue to try and see if we can bring anyone in who can help us," he added. "Whether we have any success or not, we will have to wait and see. So far, we have not come up with anything that we feel will enhance us. I'd still like to get one or two in and we may have the ability to do that before the window closes, but there's nothing in the pipeline at the moment." Despite speculation crediting Arsenal with interest in goalkeeper Allan McGregor and defender Madjid Bougherra, Smith remains hopeful there will be no further departures from his squad this month. "There is certainly nothing happening at the moment in terms of players going out the way," he said. "We've had no enquiries and hopefully it will stay that way. You are always worried someone might come in for one of the players, but that's nothing new for us. It's been ongoing for a couple of seasons at least. It's just something we've got to live with but hopefully Kenny Miller is the only one we will lose in this transfer window."

• Former Rangers defender Kevin Muscat could have played his last game after receiving an eight-match suspension yesterday for an ugly challenge on Melbourne Heart's Adrian Zahra in last weekend's A-League derby.

Playing what is widely believed to be his last A-League season, the 37-year-old Melbourne Victory captain went flying into a tackle on Zahra, who suffered a serious ligament injury. Muscat said he regretted the "mistimed tackle", insisting he did not intend to injure Zahra.