Callum McGregor hails Patrick Roberts signing

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Brendan Rodgers’s Celtic signed Patrick Roberts on a season-long loan deal from Manchester City in the summer transfer window.

Celtic central midfielder Callum McGregor has explained to The Glasgow Evening Times why Patrick Roberts is the perfect signing for the club.

Roberts joined Scottish Premiership side Celtic on a season-long loan deal from Premier League outfit Manchester City in the summer transfer window.

The 20-year-old winger had returned to his parent club City earlier in the summer following an 18-month loan spell at Celtic Park.

Celtic midfielder McGregor, 24, has hailed the recruiting of Roberts, and has explained why the signing of the England Under-20 international is perfect.

“It is a perfect signing in some ways,” McGregor told The Glasgow Evening Times regarding the signing of Roberts.

“You could go out and spend however much you like on a player – and the way this summer has been you can see some of the prices that are floating about – and no-one can ever know for sure how a player is going to settle in at a club.

“With Patrick, it should be pretty seamless. I was speaking to him fairly regularly over the summer and I know a few of the lads were too.

“He might feel as though he needs a wee bit of match sharpness in fitness but once he is up and running there is no doubt that he gives us something a bit different and it says much about the club that we were able to go and get him back, even though there was plenty of interest in him from elsewhere.”

Roberts was a success at Celtic during his loan spell at the Glasgow giants and is hugely popular among the Celtic Park faithful.

The England Under-20 international is a very clever and tricky winger, and the youngster is going to enhance the quality of Brendan Rodgers’s side.

Celtic won the Scottish Premiership, the Scottish League Cup and the Scottish Cup last season, and will be aiming to repeat those heroics during the 2017-18 campaign.

Meanwhile, former Celtic midfielder and manager David Hay has said that James Forrest will fight for his place in the team following the signing of Roberts.

“James Forrest is a player that I think has been in pretty good form over the qualification campaign – it was his goal in Rosenborg that played a huge part in Celtic getting back into the group stages of the Champions League – and I am sure that he won’t be too willing to move over and relinquish his jersey,” Hay wrote in The Glasgow Evening Times.