The Celtic and Southampton love affair is set to continue with stories circulating that the south coast side are eyeing up another swoop on the Scottish champions according to Football Insider.
The Saints are said to be preparing a bid for Olivier Ntcham and with the 24-year old still having two years to go on his Parkhead contract, the Hoops could command a significant transfer fee and would expect to get more than the £4.5million they paid Manchester City in 2017.
Ntcham has been close to an exit from Celtic on a couple of occasions in recent seasons with a summer move to Marseille collapsing prior to a deadline day transfer to West Ham in January also failing.
He is one of the most technically gifted members of Neil Lennon’s squad and his early performances – in Ryan Christie’s enforced absence through injury – following the winter break as a number ten behind two strikers proved that he can still be a valuable player for Celtic.
He has, however, been outspoken about Scottish football and it is felt that he is not long for these shores and, despite his obvious ability, Lennon knows that he could make a decent profit whilst still having more than adequate cover in the shape of Christie and Tom Rogic when deploying his now favoured 3-5-2 formation – the perfect transfer, if one exists.
Lennon doesn’t expect wholesale changes to his team and after confirming that he hopes to keep both Fraser Forster and Mohamed Elyounoussi, there is the potential for a deal to be done without him having to break the bank.
With such a commanding lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership, Lennon knows that fine tuning is all that is needed to ensure that his team become history makers once again in one of the biggest seasons in the club’s illustrious existence.