Motherwell youngster David Turnbull is subject of a £1.2million bid from Celtic

Brighton are looking to hijack the Hoops' move for the 19-year-old midfielder

Turnbull won Scottish Football Writers young Scottish player of the year prize

Celtic are plotting a move for Motherwell midfield prospect David Turnbull.

And the Scottish champions face competition for the Fir Park teenager from English Premier League Brighton.

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The 19-year-old scooped the Scottish Football Writers young Scottish player of the year prize after 16 goals in 34 appearances for the Lanarkshire side in his breakthrough season.

Motherwell youngster David Turnbull is the subject of interest from Scottish champions Celtic

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Also shortlisted for the PFA Scotland young player award Motherwell have yet to receive any concrete offers for the youngster, but have told interested clubs they value him in the £3million bracket.

Neil Lennon's return to Celtic as permanent manager is likely to be rubber stamped after negotiations on Friday. Verbally offered the post after Saturday's Scottish Cup Final win over Hearts, the Northern Irishman is expected to nail down the terms of an agreement before leaving for a family holiday.

With Mikael Lustig, Dedryck Boyata, Oli Burke, Timothy Weah, Jeremy Toljan, Filip Benkovic, Dorus de Vries, Cristian Gamboa and Scott Allan heading for the exits Lennon will return for pre-season training before June 17.

With several players departing Celtic this summer, Neil Lennon will need to rebuild his squad

And Sportsmail understands the Northern Irishman hopes to make Turnbull one of the first additions to a reshaped squad.

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The former Scotland under-21 international signed a new deal tying him to Motherwell until the summer of 2021 earlier this year.

Since then the new Brighton management team of Graham Potter and Scottish assistant Billy Reid have taken a keen interest in his form.

Potter and Reid were keen to take the youngster to Swansea before quitting to replace sacked Chris Hughton at the Seagulls two weeks ago. Scottish football's brightest young prospect still features on their list of summer targets.

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Motherwell chief executive Alan Burrows insists the club want to shatter their record fee of £1.75million paid by Celtic for Phil O'Donnell in 1994, writing on Twitter: 'I try not to respond to speculation (for obvious reasons), but to reiterate what I've already gone on record as saying. We will only consider offers of significantly more than our record fee received.'