Martin O'Neill has made it clear to club colleagues that he was unimpressed by Novo's lack of commitment following a meeting between the two last week.
Sources suggest that Novo is being lured to join Rangers by the promise of a basic wage of more than £8,000 a week and a first-team place. Celtic had proposed a lower basic wage, with performance bonuses, in the belief that the player should be able to demonstrate the confidence that he could fight successfully for a first-team place.
Although Celtic had indicated that they could meet Dundee's asking price of £500,000 but no formal offer was made to the player. Celtic withdrew the bid 24 hours after Novo's visit to Parkhead on June 29.
Suspicions have been raised about earlier tabloid newspaper claims that Novo was prepared to sit things out as he favoured Rangers, partly because former Dundee team-mates Gavin Rae and Zurab Khizanishvili are there. Newspaper industry sources are certain that this story came from within Rangers, although the motive is unclear.
The question is whether Rangers thought the idea of Novo "snubbing" Celtic for Rangers would be good for Ibrox supporters' morale, or whether this was an attempt to push Dundee into a deal. Either way, Dundee say they're sticking to their asking price, partly because some of the money will go to their creditors and a percentage bonus is due to Novo's previous club, Raith Rovers.
Either way, observers are puzzled that Celtic would table their offer in the first place. Novo had an impressive scoring record last season, but it's well known that success in a smaller club is no guarantee for a player joining Celtic or Rangers, who tend to find themselves up against more defensive line-ups in the SPL.
Had Novo joined Celtic, he would have risked joining several other squad players who have joined from the SPL but failed to deliver, including Momo Sylla (ex-St Johnstone), David Fernandez (ex-Livingston) and Ulrik Laursen (ex-Hibs).
Some are puzzled that Novo would have too little self-belief to fight for first team recognition at Celtic. A few expect that if Rangers cannot increase their bid of £350,000, the Spaniard will end up moving south if a Premiership or Nationwide club can deliver the money Dundee need.
Celtic have been linked with a few strikers since the departure of Henrik Larsson in May, but are believed to have narrowed their search to half a dozen players which the club believe they have a realistic chance of persuading to come to Parkhead.

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