‘Nature of the game’: Manager reacts to Celtic’s links with his nine-goal star

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Neil Lennon’s Scottish Premiership champions Celtic reportedly want to raid Stephen Robinson’s Motherwell for Liam Donnelly.

Stephen Robinson admitted Motherwell are a ‘selling club’ amid claims that Celtic are looking to raid Fir Hill for Liam Donnelly, while speaking to Not The Old Firm.

With Belfast Live linking Neil Lennon’s side with a Northern Ireland international who has been in the form of his life this season, a tired old argument looked set to rear its ugly head again.

Time and again over the years, Celtic have been accused of stealing star players from some of the league’s smaller clubs before turning them into seldom-seen squad players at Parkhead.

And Motherwell fans will have been concerned that the same fate would befall their most improved performer of 2019/20.

Donnelly might have netted nine times in 20 games in all competitions but the chances of him forcing Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie and co out of the Celtic starting XI looked slim.

And, speaking just hours after the reports emerged, Robinson has played down speculation, before admitting that it may be tough to hang on to Donnelly for the long term.

“It’s news to me. Maybe agents justify there existence putting stuff in papers, I don’t know. I’ve not heard anything and there’s been no enquires for any of my players,” Robinson said, before admitting that the harshness of reality means Motherwell will have to listen to offers for their star men.

“We are a club that has to sell players to survive so I’d say it’s part of the job.

“People come and take our players and we try take their players. It’s just the nature of the game but it’s not something I’m going to dwell on too much. If someone comes and makes an offer that we feel is justified we’ll take a look at it.”

Donnelly has only recently started catching the eye for Motherwell, even scoring twice against Celtic back in August in a 5-2 defeat.

But surely he will need to prove himself over a longer period if the Hoops are to take a chance on him.