Celtic continue cornering French youth team

Celtic look set to continue their cornering of the French youth international team by capturing Olivier Ntcham (21) this week. He would be the most recent signing in a productive relationship with Manchester City which has seen Patrick Roberts, Dedryck Boyata and Jason Denayer all make the journey to from Manchester to Glasgow.

Olivier joined City as a 16-year-old and has been on loan at Genoa for the last two years. The player will doubtlessly be impressed by the progress of Roberts and international teammate, Moussa Dembele, at Celtic Park.

Ntcham is an attacking central midfield player who will compete with Tom Rogic and Stuart Armstrong for a place in the team. At 21, he has played a lot less football than either of them, but with 30-odd games in Serie A under his belt whose progress has been meticulously planned by City since 16, we should be getting someone first-team ready.

A year ago, we were told our signings were a reaction to the arrival in town of Joey Barton. I wonder who has us worried this year? Or maybe we just plan our business well, pay our bills, tax and NI, then spend whatever is left over. Like we have done for 20 years.