RONNY Deila last night stressed that Celtic will only take Patrick Roberts on loan from Manchester City if they can keep him for longer than the remainder of this season.
Celtic officials have held talks with their City counterparts this week about Roberts, the England Under-19 internationalist, moving to Glasgow on a temporary basis.
However, the deal for the 18-year-old, who City bought from Fulham for £12 million last year, hinges on him being allowed to stay beyond the end of the 2015/16 campaign.
Deila stressed the winger, who has made three appearances for Manuel Pellegrini’s team this season, will only arrive in the January transfer window if he is available for the entire year at least.
“We will not take a player on loan to have him only until the summer,” he said. “If it’s going to be loans then it has to be longer than just to the summer.”
“If that is the case it will not happen, you have my word on that. If it happens, then there has to be something special that we need at that time, to the summer, or else it’s going to be a longer loan.
“If not, there is not anything to think about. We have a lot of players. We have to think if it is somebody who can make a difference into next season as well."
Deila, who took Jason Denayer and John Guidetti on loan from City last season, stressed he enjoyed a good working relationship with the Etihad Stadium club which stretched back to his time with Stromsgodset.
“We trust each other," he said. "We have developed players for them. If they can bring quality into our squad like Jason did and Guidetti as well then it’s positive for both of us.
"Now we know that if we’re going do to things like that we have to have an arrangement that is over the summer and for a longer period.”
Meanwhile, Deila remained guarded on his interest in Kristoffer Ajer, the 17-year—old Norwegian midfielder who spent a week on trial at Lennnoxtown earlier this month, despite the player stating Celtic were speaking to his club IK Start.
“He made a good impression,” he said. “We will see. But, again, that’s something for the future it’s not something that would make a big difference in the next half year.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel