Luis Palma describes Nicolas Kuhn in one word after Celtic’s pre-season win over Manchester City

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Celtic continued their preparations for the new Scottish Premiership campaign by beating Manchester City in a seven-goal thriller.

Brendan Rodgers’ side are out in the USA for their pre-season tour – they recently opened their account in America by thrashing DC United.

But now Celtic stuck out their chests even further and proved their worth against a fairly young and experienced Manchester City team.

The familiar faces that started for Pep Guardiola were Stefan Ortega, Rico Lewis, Kalvin Phillips, Oscar Bobb, Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland.

Both Bobb and Haaland did get on the scoresheet, but it wasn’t enough to stop Celtc’s attacking players from running riot.

The man of the moment was January capture, Nicolas Kuhn, who netted a brace and found the back of the net alongside Kyogo Furuhashi and Luis Palma.

Yes, these pre-season matches are mainly about building that fitness and getting the legs pumping again ahead of another gruelling campaign.

But Kuhn’s first-half display is pretty encouraging for Rogers because he has someone banging on his door ahead of that opener against Kilmarnock on August 4.

After the game, Palma took to his Instagram story to label Kuhn as a ‘king’, with the player responding by saying ‘my brother’.

Luis Palma and Nicolas Kuhn help Celtic beat Manchester City in pre-season

Celtic’s attacking players next season

It’s going to be interesting to see what Kuhn and Palma produce next season after their debut campaigns in Glasgow – Chris Sutton warned that Palma ‘needs to get fitter’ at Celtic.

But he isn’t the only one, Mark Wilson felt Kuhn looked ‘way off it’ last season, but this is his chance to put all of that behind him.

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How the above duo perform will also depend on the summer transfer business and the deals the club concludes – Sources have told HITC about Celtic’s stance on Matt O’Riley after Atalanta made a second offer.

And then there is the star striker from Norwich City. Celtic have been sent a clear message on a possible Adam Idah deal, with fans keen for the club to bring him back after his outstanding six months at Parkhead.