Chelsea wage bill below City's

Slovakian midfielder Jan Gregus looks set to complete his one-year loan move to Bolton Wanderers.

The 21-year-old Banik Ostrava player has been in England since Tuesday in a bid to finalise a one-year loan deal with a view to a permanent move and he will soon be a Bolton man barring a late hitch.

"Gregus' move to Bolton is 90 per cent done and only an administrative issue can ruin it," Banik official Michal Dyml told Czech newspaper Blesk.

"I cannot reveal any details from this deal. But if the player should stay at Bolton beyond the first year, then we would reach more interesting figures."

The captain of the Slovakia under-21 side impressed Bolton manager Dougie Freedman during a match against Romania.

The player himself added: "The coach saw me in the match against Romania and wanted me to come. I am not interested in joining any other clubs."

He also told Sport in Slovakia: "The facilities at Bolton are superb. The training centre is top class but that's something they are used to here, I guess.

"The stadium is just beautiful and I'm looking forward to my new spell.

"I'm happy. If someone had told me during the autumn that I would be at a Championship club in the spring, I would not have believed it."

The Hoops have confirmed Israel defender Rami Gershon's six-month loan deal from Standard Liege has been finalised.

And more new recruits could be on the way as Celtic chase a domestic treble, while preparing to face Juventus in the last 16 of the Champions League.

Lawwell said: "We always like to strengthen. If the right opportunity comes along, we would like to do that.

"We would hopefully come out stronger than where we are at the moment.

"If they don't appear, then they don't appear.

"We have scouted a lot of players.

"January is not the best time to be doing it but, if we believe there is somebody out there, with the right deal to strengthen the squad and it's do-able, we would do it."

Discussions remain ongoing with Gary Hooper and Victor Wanyama over new contracts.

Lawwell added: "We are continuing to talk until there is an offer for players that they want to take and go or they sign a contract.

"It would be wrong to put a time limit on it.

"We are in a good place as a club at the moment. Thankfully we've got a lot of talent.

"We've got players who will be sought after but we are managing that and we have a good track record of managing that in the past.

"There have been no offers for any of our players."

Lawwell was speaking as Celtic announced a three-year shirt sponsorship deal with Magners.

The cider brand will replace Tennent's Lager at the end of the season.

The deal means the Hoops will have a different main sponsor from Rangers for the first time in a number of years.

Lawwell said: "In the past, we did have shared sponsors but those were really down to circumstances, rather than the plan.

"We've got our own brand, our own story, our own traditions and a very powerful offering to any sponsor.

"We are not defined by any other club. We are Celtic and we've got our own offering."

Inverness granted permission for the 54-year-old former England captain to meet with the Tykes on Monday, but he has tonight informed his club of his decision to stay with them.

He becomes the second manager to turn down Barnsley since they sacked Keith Hill at the end of December, with Sean O'Driscoll having opted against taking the job on Sunday.

"I was pleased that Caley Thistle gave me the opportunity to talk to Barnsley, who were excellent to deal with," Butcher told Inverness' official website.

"But I have decided that my future lies at Inverness. We have been going extremely well to be second in the SPL, still in the Scottish Cup and with a League Cup semi-final to look forward to later this month."

The news that Butcher is staying will be of great relief to Caledonian Thistle's supporters, who have seen the former Brentford and Sydney FC manager take them up the Scottish leagues.

They are currently Celtic's nearest challengers in the title race, albeit by nine points, and European football could be on the cards later this year.

"We're delighted that Terry Butcher is to remain with us and the fans will greatly welcome the news," said chairman Kenny Cameron.

"When Barnsley made their approach we felt that out of courtesy we should allow Terry the opportunity to meet with them. But it is a huge relief that he has opted to stay.

"These are exciting times at

this club under the management of Terry and Maurice Malpas and we now look forward to maintaining what has been a wonderful season."

Butcher took the Inverness job in January 2009, replacing Craig Brewster. They take on Hearts in the semi-finals of the Scottish League Cup later this month.

Inverness, who have only lost against Motherwell and Celtic this season, are still in the William Hill Scottish Cup and are top scorers in the Clydesdale Premier League so far with 44 goals.

David Flitcroft, Hill's former assistant, is currently in charge of Barnsley, who next host Leeds in the Championship. They are currently bottom, four points shy of safety and today sold nine-goal Craig Davies to Bolton.

Flitcroft, former Sheffield Wednesday manager Gary Megson and ex-captain Neil Redfearn, currently the academy coach at Leeds, are the new favourites for the job.

The 30-year-old, who has scored twice in 24 appearances this season for the struggling Pilgrims, has apologised and been separately disciplined by the club.

As well as the automatic three-match ban for his straight red card in the 34th minute, the FA have decided to take retrospective action, under Law 12, regarding an incident in the first minute of the match and have subsequently added a further three matches to Chadwick's suspension.

That means the former Everton forward will not be available again until the clash with Northampton on February 23.

The overall wages paid out by Chelsea in the year ending June 2012 actually fell by ?18million to ?171million - compared to Manchester City who saw their wages break through the ?200million barrier.

Chelsea announced last year they had made a profit of ?1.4million - the first time they had finished in the black in the Roman Abramovich era.

The full accounts lodged with Companies House on Wednesday reveal that was aided by a one-off ?18.4million boost from the cancellation of shares owned by BSkyB.

The accounts also reveal that, aided by some one-off items, Chelsea also achieved a wage bill reduction for the first time since Abramovich took over in July 2003.

It reflects a big effort by the club to trim costs in their bid to comply with UEFA's financial fair play rules.

The numbers of playing and coaching staff dropped by 89 in 2011 to 69 in 2012, the accounts reveal.

Chelsea's wage bill is still ahead of Manchester United's ?160million total by ?11million, and removing all the exceptional items the overall trend is still slightly up - but only slightly.

The exceptional items in 2011 included a one-off ?6.4million payment to the taxman as part of a deal on image rights, and money paid to former manager Carlo Ancelotti and his coaching team.

Those payments stopped after Ancelotti was hired by Paris St Germain and led to a credit of ?4.7million into Chelsea's accounts from money they had set aside to cover those costs.

Alan Shaw, Chelsea's club secretary said in a statement published in the accounts: "The introduction of the UEFA financial fair play regulations from the 2012/13 season provides a significant challenge.

"The football club needs to balance success on the field together with financial imperatives of this new regime.

"The results recorded in this financial year put us in a good position to meet the assessment criteria for the initial periods."