Villa look to beat Celtic to Alexsandar Tonev

Aston Villa were today aiming to hijack Celtic's move for Bulgaria international Alexsandar Tonev.

The winger is available for around £2million from Polish club Lech Poznan, although he has already held talks with Celtic.

He is keen on Champions League football but is believed to be concerned about the standard of the Scottish Premier League.

Reports Celtic have agreed a fee with Poznan are wide of the mark and the 23-year-old is expected to make a decision on the Scottish champions today.

His agent Terence Chongwa has confirmed Celtic's interest and any move to Glasgow will be decided imminently.

Chongwa said: "There is definite interest in Scotland. We can confirm scouts of Celtic have been to our games this season.

"We are holding a meeting today and Aleksandar's position could become clearer then."

But Tonev knows Villa can offer him a Premier League platform, despite the lack of European action, with boss Paul Lambert looking at another summer revamp.

The Bulgarian has sounded out Stiliyan Petrov about both clubs and the 33-year-old, who will becoming Villa's assistant development coach after retiring as he battles leukaemia, rates Tonev highly.

Tonev has two years left on his contract in Poland and there is interest from Germany and Spain while Lazio and Fiorentina have also watched him in the past.

Last month he revealed he was keen on a move to Celtic but is understood to have cooled on the move and is considering his options.

He said in April: "It's important I consistently play Champions League football, Celtic is somewhere I could achieve that.

"They have a big history – and their performance in Europe this year has shown they are ready to create some new history."

Tonev has 11 caps for Bulgaria and was named the country's best player two years ago. He started his career with CSKA Sofia after coming through the ranks and joined Poznan in 2011.

He has scored four goals this season with Poznan second in the T-Mobile Ekstraklasa, six points behind Legia Warsaw with two games left.