“I saw him when he played his first game last year in a European tie where he saw the keeper off his line, turned and hit one with his back to goal which missed by a yard or so.
“I was doing radio with Gordon Dalziel and said to him: ‘He looks a good player’.
“Good players see that, bad players don’t. But to spot a keeper off his line like that is a special talent.
“You give him eight games and he could prove to be the striker Celtic crave.
“Leigh Griffiths has been magnificent. He stepped up to the mark. He has done well, but I don’t know if he’s going to frighten defenders. We need a big striker and Scepovic could be that guy.”
The Serb came into the team for early European matches, but dropped with the emergence of on-loan Manchester City attacker John Guidetti and then, after the turn of the year, the prolific return from Griffiths.
“Ronny wouldn’t have liked Gary Hooper or Scott McDonald because they are out-and-out strikers. He likes runners.
“But sometimes at a club like Celtic you just need a centre-forward, not a target man, just a poacher who will be there to tap them in rather than these spectacular goals Griffiths hits.”
Macca believes Scepovic can follow the example of Nir Bitton, the Israeli midfielder who ended the campaign so strongly after taking over from the injured Charlie Mulgrew in midfield.
“All of a sudden, they were playing him and he ended up probably Celtic’s best player.
“I would say to Scepovic: ‘Have six to eight games. Show us what you have got and then we will decide after that’.”
