With Derby County currently struggling both on and off the pitch, you could forgive a few clubs for trying their luck in attempting to sign a few of the club's remaining contracted talent.

The Rams are down to the bare bones as the start of the new EFL season gets closer, with Wayne Rooney right now unable to sign any of his trialists to contracts - a situation that he hopes to have resolved in the near future.

Takeover talks surrounding County have gone quiet as well in recent weeks, and maybe that is why their bitterest rivals Nottingham Forest have expressed a serious interest in signing young left-back Lee Buchanan from them.

As first reported by Alan Nixon, Forest made their move for Buchanan last week with Chris Hughton keen to fill a serious void at left-back in his line-up - their initial bid apparently fell way short of Derby's valuation and a second offer has also been knocked back.

The journalist believes that Forest are getting nowhere with their attempts to sign the 20-year-old and that they will soon have to move on, but there's another club in the mix in the form of Celtic.

Per the Daily Record, Buchanan is on Ange Postecoglou's list of targets at the Hoops and the Australian looks to strengthen both sides of the pitch at full-back.

Much of their interest may depend on how their Europa League qualifying goes - the Scottish side have already been knocked out of the Champions League by Danish side Midtjylland and now face Czech outfit Jablonec for a place in the play-off round of Europe's secondary competition.

There's been no updates on whether or not a bid will actually be placed north of the border for Buchanan but you'd have to imagine that Celtic have a better chance at signing him than Forest do - there would be uproar at Pride Park from fans if the club sold one of their top prospects to a rival.