Shrewsbury boss boss Paul Simpson is planning to exploit his relationship with Celtic manager Tony Mowbray in a bold bid to attract promising youngsters from the Scottish giants.

Mowbray proved useful to Shrewsbury last season when in charge at West Brom – rubber-stamping deals for Luke Daniels and David Worrall to join on loan.

Goalkeeper Daniels proved a key figure in Town’s charge to the play-off final, while Worrall was a regular in the squad during the run-in.

Mowbray has since moved north of the border to take the reigns at Celtic Park, and Simpson believes there could be an opportunity for Shrewsbury to benefit.

Any movement between the two clubs would revive an old link dating back to the 1970s and ’80s, when the likes of Jake King, Jackie Keay and Brian Coyne all headed to Shropshire from Glasgow.

“We have a relationship with Dan Ashworth, one of the football directors at West Brom, and I’m hoping we can still maintain that,” said Simpson.

“But I’m also looking at following Tony Mowbray and getting a relationship going there so we can maybe get players from Celtic on six-month loan deals.

“There’s some younger players there who I think would do a job for us down here and it’s just a case of whether Celtic want them to come down.

“Tony Mowbray believes they need to get out into the big, bad world, and that they might get looked after a bit more down here than they would at some smaller Scottish clubs.”

Simpson has already held talks with Mowbray.

“It’s just conversations at the moment but we will see if we can do something,” he said.

By CHRIS HUDSON