Wolves demand £2 million for Kevin Doyle

The Hoops have enquired about the 29-year-old, who doesn't appear to figure in Molineux head coach Kenny Jackett's plans.

It is understood boss Neil Lennon was willing to pay £500,000 for the Ireland international, despite Wolves dismissing speculation of a bid of that size from Celtic earlier this week.

But Wolves want to claw back a substantial chunk of the £6.5m they paid to make him their club-record signing in summer 2009. And those demands appear to have scared Celtic off, for the time being.

Sources suggest the Parkhead giants will return with a bid for Doyle towards the end of the transfer window if they fail to land other targets further down their list.

Celtic, who had a loan approach for Doyle turned down in January, are armed with significant funds following the sales of Victor Wanyama to Southampton for £12.5m and Gary Hooper to Norwich for £5.2m. They also earned £20.2m from UEFA as reward for reaching the last 16 of the Champions League last season, boosting their income from the competition to £37.7m since January.

Celtic's top earners are on about half Doyle's estimated £40,000-a-week wages. But with Jackett saying the frontman is unlikely to figure in Saturday's League One opener against Preston, Doyle needs to be playing to justify the huge outlay.

Apart from one friendly outing in the Under-21s, Doyle is yet to figure in pre-season.

Jackett said: "He hasn't really had any football yet – Leigh Griffiths, Jake Cassidy and Liam McAlinden have been the focal point of the attack. It's likely they're going to be again.

"But I wouldn't necessarily rule out someone if I felt they were the right person or we had people missing."

Jackett resisted putting Doyle up for sale along with Roger Johnson, Jamie O'Hara and Karl Henry simply because he's a striker.

"Centre-forwards are a different market," he said. "From my position, you can never have enough so, positionally, it made sense."

Meanwhile, Jackett cautioned against transfer-listed trio Roger Johnson, Stephen Ward and Jamie O'Hara being loaned out.

"Right now, it's not something that's on our mind, but possibly in the future, yes. "There hasn't been any interest in them," he said.