CHRIS Davies, the Celtic assistant manager, last night admitted John McGinn, the Hibernian and Scotland midfielder, is a player he admires as he arrived in Austria for pre-season training.
Davies confirmed Brendan Rodgers, who has brought in Jonny Hayes from Celtic since the end of last season, was keen to strengthen his squad further before the start of the new campaign.
McGinn has been linked with movesto both Ipswich Town and the Scottish champions since helping Hibs win the Ladbrokes Championship and reach the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final last season.
The Parkhead assistant confirmed the 22-year-old was a player who had impressed Rodgers during the 2016/17 campaign.
And the Englishman has stated the treble winners would be looking to bring in some quality additions to their squad, and tie up the existing players on new deals, during the coming weeks.
Asked about McGinn, Davies said: "He's a player I admire. Yes, I think he's a good player, but it's not fair for us to start speculating on bringing this player or that when they belong to other clubs.
“He had a really good season last year and I'm aware of him being a really good player. That's as far as that one goes. We know what we want and we're working towards that."
Asked about recruitment for the new season, he said: "That's still ongoing. Like the manager said, it's quality not quantity we're looking for. The group's done extremely well for us last year and achieved something really good.
"We want to try and keep them together and see if we can add, but there's nothing new that I can tell you today from what the manager said.
"It's about bringing quality to the squad. We have players for every position so it's not any one area that stands out or an alarming position that you need to fill but of course you're looking for quality players to add."
"It's about recruitment and retention. It's about knowing the players that you want to keep and of course we had a really good season last year.
"It's logical to think that we want to retain those players that did so well for the club. That is an ongoing process as well."
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