St Mirren chief executive Tony Fitzpatrick says that Celtic will be getting a bargain should they land wonderkid Lewis Morgan, and he thinks the 21-year-old has what it takes to cut it at the highest level.

HeraldSport revealed yesterday that Brendan Rodgers’s Premiership champions had won the race for Morgan’s signature, with a £300,000 deal in the offing that will see Morgan loaned back to St Mirren for the rest of the season.

And Fitzpatrick reckons that his dedication off the field allied to his ability on it, means that the youngster will be able to handle the step up to life at Celtic Park should the move come to pass.

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The Herald: Lewis Morgan has been in impressive form for St Mirren.

“Lewis Morgan is a really exciting talent, and in normal circumstances, Lewis is a million-pound player,” Fitzpatrick said.

“He’s got two great feet, he’s got pace, he’s exciting, and he’s a great lad. When you talk about wanting to be a top player, then he’s a very impressive young man, and when you speak to him and he’s got that plan in his head.

“That’s the difference with Lewis. Ability-wise, there is a reason you are going to Celtic Park, and in terms of ability, Lewis is as good as anything at Celtic if I’m being honest.

“But what you really need, and what lets down a lot of players who go to Celtic, is that mental toughness. Lewis has that.

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“He has a real desire in his mind that he wants to be a top, top player, and nothing is going to stop him.

“He practices constantly, he lives his life properly off the park and he’s very grounded.

“The kid has put up with a lot. You have to remember that he was discarded by Rangers. He was told he was too small to be a football player.

“There will be other kids getting let go just now, and they’ll think their world is over. Instead of buckling, he had that belief inside of him to say ‘no, they are wrong’.

“When we played Celtic last season, I think Brendan Rodgers was wowed when he saw this kid running at people and his intensity in the game in shutting people down.

“If Celtic do sign him, they’ve got a top young player.”

Fitzpatrick’s association with St Mirren stretches back some 40 years to the days when Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge at the club. He has therefore witnessed some of the best talent that the Paisley club have produced, and he believes that Morgan can be compared with any of them.

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“There have been some great players; Frank McAvennie, Frank McGarvey, Peter Weir,” he said. “Even up to the modern day with John McGinn and Kenny McLean.

“Lewis is up there with any of them. He has that thing that makes people want to come and see football matches. When he receives the ball, you see people coming up off the edge of their seat.”

Fitzpatrick thinks that St Mirren’s decision not to cash in on Morgan in the summer has been vindicated with his impact this season, and he is delighted that even if the move to Celtic is sealed, he will remain at the club for the remainder of the campaign.

“We will lose a lot of money on it, but we felt that we owed that to the fans, and to Jack [Ross] as well,” he said. “We had to give the manager the best possible chance to get us to the Premiership.

“It would have been a deal-breaker if he wasn’t coming back to us on loan. We would rather not have taken a penny just to keep Lewis until the end of the season. That’s how much he means to us.”