THE CHASE is hotting up for Blackburn Rovers' transfer-listed goalkeeper Tim Flowers, with Celtic reportedly heading the queue.

Flowers has again been linked with a £1.5 million move north of the border now that Kenny Dalglish, his former manager at Ewood Park, has taken charge at Celtic Park.

Such a deal looked far from cut-and-dried today with Rovers yet to receive an offer for the England international and Celtic still to confirm an interest.

And Flowers would also need to oust Jonathan Gould, who seems fairly well established as Celtic's number one.

But such a move can't be ruled out once last season's Scottish Premier League runners-up have finalised transfer dealings with the Bulgarian international pair of Stilian Petrov and Milen Petkov from CSKA Sofia.

"There has been nothing (from Celtic) at the moment. I have read previously that if and when there was a change of management there might be, but there's been nothing so far," confirmed Ewood chief executive John Williams.

But the interest in Flowers is certainly growing as he looks to secure a move before clubs report back for pre-season training at the start of July.

"There have been some enquiries but it would not be appropriate for me to talk about them," Williams added. Aston Villa are likely to be one of those who have checked out Flowers, who lost his first-team place to John Filan last season, although Liverpool are definitely out of the running having signed Dutch keeper Sander Westerveld.

And with Flowers being made available by Rovers, then clubs could also be sounding out the 32-year-old directly before following up any interest with a bid.

"The reality is that that may happen," Williams admitted.

"It's not an issue. I am keeping in regular contact with Tim's agent and we are pooling our information.

"With the club having made the decision to let Tim go I think we've got to play our full part in that.

"There may have been some informal contact and we are working with Tim's people to see if anything's going to happen."

Meanwhile, Rovers have had an encouraging response to the start of their season-ticket sales.

On-going figures aren't available and the club confirmed it remains early days in assessing the impact of relegation to the Nationwide League.

But Williams said: "The administration process is going well.

"And it would appear that the offers we have made have gone down well."

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