CITY have admitted defeat in their pursuit of Irish hot-shot Georgie Kelly – but they are close to another deal before the weekend.

League of Ireland top scorer Kelly was understood to be the target that Derek Adams was competing for with Rotherham.

But it appears that the League One club have won the race.

Adams admitted this afternoon: “The player we were going to go for has decided to join another club. I don’t know which club that is but he has got a very good offer and decided to go there.”

Millers boss Paul Warne earlier confirmed that he had held talks with the 25-year-old, who is keen to move to England.

But Adams has his sights on a fourth arrival in the transfer window in time for the short hop to Rochdale this weekend.

“I’m hopeful that I can possibly get another signing in before Saturday’s game,” he added. “I’ve been working on it for a bit of time now.

“I’m really just waiting for the other club to give me the go-ahead to get the signing in.

“We’ve been scouring the market for a long time. As with the recruitment team, we’ve identified players we’d like to go for and missed out on some but that’s just the nature of any transfer window.

“We continue to look to strengthen in a number of areas.”