Celtic withdrew a January offer to take Sheffield Wednesday striker Jordan Rhodes on loan for the rest of the season due to the Owls' demands around the deal, a report from a print edition of The Sun on Sunday (23/02, p63) has claimed.

The Scottish champions had been linked with a move for Rhodes ahead of the January transfer window, although no move back north of the border would ultimately materialise for the Scotsman during the winter window, and the reasons behind that now appear to have emerged.

According to the latest reports, Sheffield Wednesday demanded a loan fee of £1million from Celtic for Rhodes' services for the remainder of the campaign, while the Glasgow club would have also had to pay the striker's wages during his time at Parkhead.

As a result, Celtic elected to abandon their interest in the 30-year-old, who continues to endure a difficult time at Hillsborough.

Since returning to Wednesday from a season-long loan spell with Norwich last season, Rhodes has made 15 appearances in all competitions for the Owls, scoring three times - all of which came in a hattrick in a 4-0 win at Nottingham Forest back in December.

Celtic meanwhile, are currently top of the Scottish Premiership, ten points clear of closest challenges Rangers, and are level 1-1 with Copenhagen after the first leg of their Europa League round of 32 tie on Thursday night.

The Verdict

This looks to have been the right decision from Celtic.

With Rhodes having struggled to rediscover his past goalscoring form for several seasons now, you feel there was never any guarantee this would be a successful deal for either party.

As a result, the costs Celtic would have had to pay would have made this risky from a financial perspective as well, so you can understand why they were keen to steer clear of this deal in the end.

Indeed, with Neil Lennon's side continuing to push on in the race for the Scottish title, it doesn't seem as though the decision not to bring Rhodes to Glasgow is costing them at all at the minute.