KRISTOFFER AJER has been heavily linked with a move to Italian giants AC Milan this summer, but Celtic are still hopeful of keeping the Norwegian ahead of their historic 10 in a row bid.

We told how the San Siro side retained Stefano Pioli on a new two-year deal this month and he is set to be given significant spending money ahead of the new season to strengthen his squad.

The latest coming out of Italy is that Pioli has drawn up a list of defensive targets with Ajer and Fiorentina's Nikola Milenkovic making the cut.

Ajer still has two years left on his Parkhead deal so it is understood that Milan would have to offer over £20million to have any chance of signing the defender.

Ronny Deila brought Ajer to Celtic for just £650,000 in 2016 when he joined from Norwegian side IK Start.

He then went on-loan to Kilmarnock before becoming a regular under Brendan Rodgers.

Last season he struck up a strong partnership with Christopher Jullien at the heart of the Celtic defence.