Neil Lennon compared Kris Commons to former Celtic favourite Lubomir Moravcik after the in-form midfielder took his Hoops' career tally to 51 with a double in the 4-0 hammering of St Mirren in Paisley.
Moravcik was an unknown quantity in Glasgow when he signed for Celtic in 1998 at the age of 33, but the mercurial Slovakian playmaker went on to become a hero in the eyes of the Parkhead faithful during his four years at the club.
And the Celtic boss believes Commons, who signed from Derby County in 2011 for around £300,000, is proving to be every bit as good.
After goals from Charlie Mulgrew and Anthony Stokes had put the visitors comfortably ahead, Commons grabbed a quickfire brace - his 16th and 17th of the season - as the Hoops extended their unbeaten Scottish Premiership run to 20 games.
Lennon said: "His goal return is fantastic and it would be interesting to see how many assists he has had in his time here," said Lennon, who will exercise the one-year option on Commons' contract which will tie him to the club for another 18 months.
"He is 30 but has three, four, five good years in him and he is getting better.
"I make comparisons with Lubo. I know Lubo was a magician. Kris is a little bit more direct but he is dynamite with both feet, intelligent, his movement is very good and is technically our best player, probably as Lubo was back in the day.
"He probably hasn't got the natural skills that Lubo has but he is certainly more of a goal threat than Lubo was."
The former Celtic skipper revealed that talks are still on-going with Georgios Samaras and Joe Ledley, who are both out of contract at the end of the season but he admits he is no clearer in his mind as to their possible respective decisions.
Samaras missed the St Mirren game with a hamstring injury and will not be flying out to Turkey on Monday for Celtic's winter break - which actually consists of two games in the Antalya Cup, a tournament which also involves Galatasaray, Trabzonspor and Dutch champions Ajax.
Lennon said: "Georgios has a bit of time to think about his future.
"He won't be coming to Turkey, he will be staying to have some treatment and hopefully we will have an answer one way or the other on his future when we come back.
"He had a meeting with Peter (Lawwell, chief executive) yesterday. You are never confident one way or the other. He has a lot to think about.
"It is a big contract for him, he is 29 so the next three or four years of his career is important.
"We would like him to be here but that may not be the case.
"Joe's representatives are coming up on Tuesday so hopefully we will get something resolves there one way or the other."
Saints boss Danny Lennon, who claimed he could "take a lot" from his side's first-half performance, confirmed that midfielder Kenny McLean would undergo surgery on a knee problem later in the week.
He said: "It is unfortunate for Kenny. He has one or two episodes with his knee lately, it flares up now and again and takes three or four days to settle down.
"We gave him up to the day of the Kilmarnock game and it was no good so he goes under the knife next Friday and will be missing for four to six weeks."
Lennon believes Celtic have got what it takes to go the whole season unbeaten.
He said: "The gulf between Glasgow Celtic and most other clubs is absolutely enormous.
"I certainly don't think it is beyond them.
"It is something that a club like that needs, an extra incentive to keep playing at that intensity and I thought Neil got that from his group in the second half."
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