CELTIC HAVE begun preliminary investigations into establishing a feeder system with a club on mainland Europe, the Sunday Herald has learned. The SPL champions see snapping up the best young foreign talent as crucial to achieving their long-term strategic aims, and are giving active consideration to an ambitious feeder club scheme which would allow them to bypass the disadvantages of UK immigration policy.

The Parkhead plan is still being formulated, but successful models south of the border include Manchester United's co-operation with Belgian club Royal Antwerp since 1998, Arsenal's relationship with Beveren, and Chelsea's tie-up with Westerlo. Under such a system, non-EU players who do not usually meet strict Home Office work permit criteria of playing in 75% of their country's internationals, such as Manchester United's Chinese striker Dong Fangzhuo, can be recruited then "parked" at a foreign country which has more lenient employment laws.

"It is an option for us, we are looking at all these things," admitted Parkhead chief Peter Lawwell this week, even if he was letting on little of the scale of the work which has already been done on the project in the last few months. One source close to the club told the Sunday Herald last night that it was a "tangible project" which was "definitely in our thinking" and could "come alive at any period of time".

The club may be basking in back-to-back SPL wins and an appearance in the last 16 of the Champions League, but there is certainly little suggestion that they are resting on their laurels. Although the signings of Scott Brown and Chris Killen from Hibernian this week illustrated their keenness to continue the more humdrum policy of cherrypicking their rivals' best players, another mechanism the club's recruitment arm have admitted they would consider is that utilised by Arsenal to bypass Fifa's laws forbidding the cross-continent transfer of teenage footballers when they signed Carlos Vela, the star of Mexico's 2005 Under-17 World Cup winning team.

The Gunners signed him as a 17-year-old, but reached an agreement with Celta Vigo whereby the Spanish club took responsibility for relocating his family to Spain as well as granting them use of the player for 18 months. He has since been loaned out to Spanish second division side Salamanca, but Arsenal have taken over formal ownership of theplayer, who will become a citizen of Spain (and the EU) on residency grounds next summer. Barcelona used similar tactics to sign Lionel Messi at the age of 13, and Celtic have indicated they would also countenance such deals if the player in question was deemed worthy. "I think we would deal with every case on its merits," a source said. "That is the stage we are at now."

Such desperate measures reflect a club coming to terms with the task of trying to maintain progress in the Champions League whilst suffering the double whammy of having neither the access to Premiership funds nor the lax immigration laws which favour clubs such as Porto or PSV Eindhoven. In the Netherlands, for instance, the only restriction on non-EU players is that the club must pay them a minimum wage of £4,000 a week.

Scotland's other European hopefuls such as Rangers, Hearts and Aberdeen are in the same boat, but Lawwell for one has begun the process of lobbying the SFA to get this overturned at a governmental level.

"When you look at the big teams we are at a huge financial disadvantage because of media rights, so you would have to look at Porto or Eindhoven," Lawwell said. "They would be the nearest model for us but they have a significant advantage against us in terms of the immigration policy. It is easier to bring kids and professionals in Holland, Belgium and France than it is in the UK, so you are at a disadvantage at that end in terms of scouting and bringing kids in of value.

"The Portuguese can bring Brazilians in, the French are bringing in their Africans, the Belgians can bring in Africans, the United States are coming on as well and we've got a disadvantage," he added.

"Even the big Eastern European Countries coming into the Champions League are also very flexible. What we are hoping to do is findsome way to lobby for a way that we can eliminate that disadvantage. As long as we can demonstrate our commitment to bringing on our own homegrown talent then I don't think there is any reason not to allow us to bring in foreign young talent, and coach them, either to produce them to play for you or create value.

"There is an understanding that we are at a disadvantage within the football authorities, but it is within the Home Office that we would be looking to put forward our arguments. If you are bringing a young African boy into Scotland who is on a four-year contract on decent money - certainly above the national average - I don't think there's any threat to immigration policy."

It was far from the only idea of merit to come from an engaging brainstoming session with Lawwell at Celtic Park. He used the example of how Celtic's much-criticised trip to Japan this season actually saw each SPL team benefit from an increase from $200,000 to $1.4m in the relevant overseas TV rights to express his hope that there can be more joined up thinking between the Old Firm and the SPL. And then there was even a positive response to the suggestion that - with the SFL having recruited a new chief executive and desperate for more TV revenue - now may finally be the time for Celtic B and Rangers B to be permitted entry into the SFL.

"It is not a bad thought and maybe that is something the new chap incoming SFL chief executive David Longmuir should look at," Lawwell said.

"If teams and people are playing for three points then it means something and it could be seen as being better than playing a reserve game, while for the league down there the benefit could be purely commercial."

Lawwell recoiled at the use of the word downsizing' in relation to his club's recent transfer policy, but he has no problem admitting the club are getting smarter about how they spend the money than ever before.

"I can't compare it to how we used to be, but certainly we invest a lot of money in scouting, fitness, and sports science," he said.

"We can't compete in the market for players in terms of the Premiership so you have to get your edge somewhere else."

The Old Firm's route to the Premiership is closed off but in order to achieve real success they will have to continue pushing boundaries.