Manchester City attacker Patrick Roberts is the most likely next player to be signed by Celtic, according to Football Whispers.
The football news site claims that Roberts, 21, is firmly in the running to return to Celtic Park for a fourth season, having spent the last two and a half years on loan with the Scottish Premiership champions.
The England Under-20 international, who earns £25,000-a-week on his deal at City according to statistics website Spotrac, made 78 appearances across all competitions for the Hoops, scoring 18 goals in the process.
Football Whispers gathers transfer rumours from across the world and calculates the likelihood of them coming true out of five. They claim that Roberts is now the most likeliest player to be the next addition by Brendan Rodgers, with a rating of 3.7 out of 5.
OPINION
While the Celtic fans would absolutely love to see Roberts back in the green and white hoops, it would be a bit of a shock if he was to return to Glasgow for a third loan stint after spending the last two and a half seasons there. Roberts is a quality player but it is more likely that Man City would rather see him earn Premier League experience now. Playing in one of the most widely watched leagues in the world will surely bump up his transfer value more than playing in Scotland and it may also give Pep Guardiola a better idea of how he will fare if he ever makes it into the Man City first team one day. Roberts’ loan spell at Celtic last season was a bit of a write off as well. He only managed to make 18 appearances in all competitions due to continual injury issues, scoring just one goal in the process. The former Fulham attacker will surely be disappointed by that and would probably agree that it’s time to move away from constant loan spells at Celtic Park.