Celtic set to lose “fantastic” player to make way for £2.75m deal that would be “good bit of business”

It could be “one-in, one-out” of Parkhead over the next few days with the futures of David Turnbull and Tom Rogic seemingly intertwined.

Speaking to Football Insider, Alan Hutton believes that despite Rogic’s obvious quality, the two deals make sense to move the squad forward.

So what has Hutton said?

When asked to reflect on the two deals currently being negotiated, he said:

“Overall he’s a fantastic player. I think Celtic won’t really want to lose him but if they’re going to get a decent fee for him, they’re bringing Turnbull in, a young player who’s the same and I think could have the same abilities as him moving forward, growing into a good team.

“Maybe losing one and gaining one. Lennon might look him and think he’s on the fringes of the first team so he’s probably not going to play too much so to get a fringe player off the books, wages off the books and bring in money is an absolutely ideal situation.

“You can then go and use it on someone he does want, someone in the squad that’s going to be in his plans. A good bit of business.”

So is Hutton correct?

Rogic is a good player but he just isn’t contributing in the way that he used to, he played just 600 minutes in Celtic’s Scottish Premiership fixtures last season.

He has found game time more and more restricted because of the form of both Ryan Christie and Olivier Ntcham and he doesn’t have the versatility to play deeper or wider like his teammates can.

With Turnbull said to be the dotting of an “i” away from being announced for a fee expected to be in the region of £2.75million he would face even more competition with the Motherwell youngster similar to Ntcham in that he can play anywhere in the middle of the park.

The two deals make perfect sense, a big earner who isn’t a first team regular is removed from the wage bill and a younger, more versatile replacement is brought in, and for less money, it’s so much of a no brainer that even those of a blue persuasion can see it makes good financial sense.