Recent reports suggest that West Ham United have a strong interest in Celtic’s French midfielder Olivier Ntcham.

A Hammers enquiry was supposedly given short shrift from the Scottish Premiership champions.

It’s easy to see why teams would be interested in the classy middle-man as he’s very good on the ball, has a keen eye for a sublime pass and he can also find the net (he scored nine in his debut season for The Hoops).

Ntcham is a player that Brendan Rodgers clearly admired when the Parkhead boss brought the under-21 international to Glasgow last summer from Manchester City. The Celtic gaffer has helped in Olivier’s development and he’ll have been more and more impressed with his new recruit as last season went on.

After the 3-1 win over Rosenborg this week, Rodgers praised his twenty-two year old midfielder:

“Technically he is strong, physically you can see he is an athlete and mentally he is a boy who really devotes his life to his game,”

The same goes for the Celtic faithful, who appreciate Olivier Ntcham’s gifted left foot and his considerable technical ability.

The way the Scottish champs do business suggests that they’ll sell Ntcham at some stage but I doubt it will happen this year.

The Glasgow giants see potential in a young prospect like Olivier, then they bring them in, give them first-team opportunities and watch them shine. Then comes the moment when they sell that talent, usually for a considerable profit.

It happened with Fraser Forster, Virgil van Dijk, Victor Wanyama and more. The most recent departure was Stuart Armstrong, who left for Southampton this summer in an £7m deal.

As the years go on, Celtic have become more savvy in their transfer business operations. They make sure that they tie their potential stars down to a long term contract, thus giving the club the upper hand in transfer negotiations when suitors try and pick up the talent that’s impressing them.

The other reason for signing these players to long term contracts is so that the club and their faithful support can appreciate their ability for a longer period of time. It’s not a simple exercise of making a quick buck, the Hoops hierarchy also want to keep their manager and support happy and that means not selling after just a year at the club when the first decent bid comes along.

Now that could change, should a club come in with a huge offer that’s too good to turn down but realistically most clubs won’t pay that sort of fee until they’re sure that the player can handle themselves in top competitive games.

That works for Celtic because they hope to once again reach the Champions League group stages and they’ll then hope Olivier Ntcham and his teammates can perform above expectations.

If that happens; then it keeps Celtic’s important fanbase happy, it means they can keep talent for longer, that they can attract new potential stars and then eventually sell players at a premium price when it suits Celtic and the player!

Posted on July 29th, 2018 by scott
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