Reports: Six Football League clubs plotting January transfer move for Cliftonville forward Ronan Hale

According to Football Insider’s Pete O’Rourke, Derby County, Portsmouth, Bolton Wanderers, Blackpool, Peterborough and Wrexham, owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, are all interested in signing the 25-year-old.

The clubs have sent scouts to watch in recent months and will undoubtedly have been impressed by an in-form Hale, who shared last season’s Golden Boot with Coleraine striker Matthew Shevlin.

Since returning from injury in October, he has picked up where he left off, netting 11 goals in 14 appearances across competitions, including an extra-time hat-trick in Friday’s Irish Cup fifth round victory over the Bannsiders.

The Reds star is no stranger to the English game having made a move to Birmingham City’s academy in 2016, spending three years at St Andrew’s, where he scored 28 goals in 23 outings for their U21’s, before returning to Crusaders in 2019 and enjoyed further spells at St Patrick’s Athletic and Larne.

He switched to Solitude in the summer of 2022, joining older brother Rory, who himself has had a superb season as Cliftonville challenge for the Premiership title under Jim Magilton.

Derby County and Portsmouth have made deals with Irish League clubs in recent times as the former acquired Darren Robinson from Dungannon Swifts while Northern Ireland youth international Terry Devlin moved to Pompey from Glentoran last summer.

Blackpool have also shopped in the Premiership market, bringing Shayne Lavery to Bloomfield Road from Linfield in 2021.

Hale is just the latest Cliftonville player linked with a move away as Chris Gallagher and Ben Wilson also reportedly have admirers with the former widely expected to join reigning top-flight champions Larne while 22-year-old Wilson, who is the league’s top scorer, attracting interest from within the Irish League and across the water.