Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has claimed he is ready to spend “good money” to bring in a player who has blown him away during six months of scouting.
The Hoops boss watched on as his side laboured to a 1-1 friendly draw with Rapid Vienna in Austria on Saturday, and after the match he revealed he was ready to bring in a player of “substantial pedigree”.
In an interview with the Scottish Sun, he even claimed the deal was close to completion, although he would not put a timescale on it.
“We have one we hope can get done very soon. He is a big, big talent,” he said.
“He will be a big player if we can get him in and we are hoping that will be concluded fairly soon. That will be great for us. It’s been something we’ve been looking at over a period of six months.
“Celtic have been great in trying to make it happen. If it happens, it will be a great level of quality. There’s no timescale or percentage on it. When it’s done it’s done.
“Good money will be spent on him. The player I’m talking about is of a substantial pedigree.”
The Scottish Sun have reported that the player in question is Chelsea starlet Charly Musonda, who is valued at £5million by his club.
The 20-year-old attacking midfielder joined Chelsea’s academy from Anderlecht in 2012, but he is yet to feature for the first team.
However, despite that he has become a regular in the club’s Under-23s side, and he has played 42 league and cup games for them.
The 20-year-old recently spent a year on loan at Real Betis. He joined the Spanish outfit in January 2016, and returned to Stamford Bridge in January of this year.
The Belgian attacker impressed in Spain, and made 24 appearances across all competitions for Betis, which yielded three assists and one goal.
He is primarily a left-winger, but he is also comfortable on the right and through the middle in an attacking midfield role.
Rodgers is looking to bolster his treble-winning squad with fresh talent ahead of the 2017-18 campaign, and he may see Musonda as a player who he can develop.
Musonda has been capped by Belgium Under-21s on 12 occasions, but he has not played since the 1-0 European Under-21 Championship qualifying defeat to Latvia in November of last year.