As expected, Chelsea have returned to Celtic with a second bid for Craig Gordon today. The Stamford Bridge side are believed to have tabled a £3.5m offer for the Scotland internationalist, a £1m increase from their original bid last week.

Gordon kept a clean sheet as Celtic beat Hearts 4-0 yesterday to create a new record of 27 games unbeaten at the start of a season, overtaking the previous best of 26 set by the Lisbon Lions.

Brendan Rodgers maintains that Gordon is not a player that Celtic want to sell, although it is thought that privately the keeper will seek permission from the club to enter into dialogue with Chelsea now that a second bid has been received.

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However, it is believed that the offer is still below the valuation that the club have for the 34-year-old.

“There is nothing new,” said Rodgers. “He is a player we want to keep.”

However, there also seemed to be a recognition that if the club’s valuation for the player is met then there may well be something to think about.

"Chelsea have an interest in him but for any interest to be activated there has to be a valuation of the player that has to be met,” said Rodgers.

"We don't want to sell him of course but if there's any way that would make Celtic think then there has to be an offer that would allow us to do that as a club. And what came in was nowhere near that level.

"There's nothing we have got from Chelsea that would make us think in any way we would want to lose a goalkeeper. He is a goalkeeper I really want to keep here. I have enjoyed seeing his progress and development.”

Rodgers, though, maintains that Gordon will be squandering game time if he opts to warm a bench rather than play football. And the Celtic manager also believes that the keeper has been improved this season under the tutelage of the current coaching staff.

"He is a player that, with all due respect, when myself and my staff came in here he was a far cry away from what he is now as a goalkeeper,” said Rodgers.

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"He is a goalkeeper who, whenever I studied the games here in the past, when the ball went back to Craig the crowd were nervous and the players were nervous and he was probably nervous.

"If you look at him now his game because of our style has elevated him to one of the best clubs in Europe wanting to take him down there as a number two.

"I have had a few conversations with him and he is clear where we are at.

"I understand the lure of it (Chelsea bid) and I also understand what it would mean for Craig to go there as a number two for the next two years and waste away his career in not playing games."