Russell Martin has vowed he will try and keep Alex McCarthy at Southampton after promotion to the Premier League - but admitted the goalkeeper could leave the club.
Celtic have been linked with a possible free transfer swoop for McCarthy as Brendan Rodgers looks to replace Joe Hart after his decision to retire from professional football.
The Southampton goalkeeper, 34, earned promotion to the Premier League in a play-off final victory over Leeds at Wembley.
However, McCarthy's current Southampton deal only runs until the summer meaning he could leave the club on a free transfer.
Martin, though, is hopeful he can persuade the goalkeeper to sign new terms at St Mary's after restoring him to the starting spot in goal.
The one-time England cap spent most of the season either on the bench or not as part of the matchday squad at Southampton but returned to action for the crucial end-of-season promotion push.
After his return to the No1 spot, Martin insisted he would do everything in his power to keep McCarthy against transfer interest in his services.
Speaking to the Southern Daily Echo, Martin - who is also hoping to tie down Stuart Armstrong and Che Adams to new deals - said: "Yeah, we'll try and keep all three. I think that's been the plan the whole time. Whether or not we can, I don't know.
"I know that there will be offers for all of them and probably offers that will pay them more than we can. Hopefully, the feeling they have and all that stuff will outweigh financial gain but maybe there'll be other things about it too.
"Whether that is location, club, how they feel about it - but we'll do our very best to try and keep all three. I think all three of them have been really outstanding.
"And then Big Al, I guess I'm a bit of an idiot for not playing a bit sooner but I think we have such a brilliant goalkeeping department here with Gavin and Joe as well.
"I'm so pleased for Al that it finished in this way. As I said, maybe it was meant to happen that he came into the team at some point.
"He's been immense since he came in so we'll try and keep Al as well and we'll keep our fingers crossed."
