Patrick Roberts is currently on loan at Celtic from Manchester City.
Patrick Roberts has suggested to The Herald that he could return to Celtic for the 2017-18 season.
Roberts is on an 18-month loan deal at Celtic at the moment, but the 20-year-old winger is scheduled to return to his parent club Manchester City in the summer transfer window.
The winger has proved to be a success at Celtic Park and has scored 15 goals in 55 appearances in all competitions for the Bhoys.
The former Fulham youngster has revealed that he plans to return to City for pre-season, but the 20-year-old has suggested that he is open to the idea of re-joining Brendan Rodgers’s side.
“I did sign there two years ago and that was my aim – to play for them,” Roberts told The Herald regarding City. “I had no idea I was going to come here.
“This was a learning curve and an experience I had to take on as young player and I have taken it on fully. City is a massive club as well and when I go down there I need to be confident, believe in my own ability and see where it takes me.”
“In football you don’t know what could happen,” added Roberts about a return to Celtic. “It could turn out good, it could turn out bad. As long as I give it a go. I am still a City player so I will go back there and do pre-season. Then we will see what happens from there.”
Roberts is a City player, and it would not make sense for him or the Premier League club to part ways in the summer. After all, the winger has not been given a proper chance at the Etihad Stadium.
Perhaps the best way to go forward is for City manager Pep Guardiola to make him part of his first-team squad at the start of the 2017-18 season.
If Roberts establishes himself in the Citizens’ starting lineup, then all well and good. If the youngster is more or less used as a substitute in the opening months of the campaign, then perhaps he could be loaned back to Celtic in January 2018 for the rest of the 2017-18 season.
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