MARTIN Odegaard "would struggle" to play for this Celtic team and is "not even close" to the standard of Kris Commons.

That was just one revelation from a diverting conversation with Ronny Deila at Lennoxtown last week.

The 16-year-old Norwegian wonderkid and full international, who led most of the big clubs of world football a merry dance before settling for Real Madrid at the turn of the year, was unearthed under Deila at Stromsgodset but the point with Odegaard is not what he is right now but what he could be in the future. Only last week the Celtic manager decided the best thing for Liam Henderson's development would be to send him out to Rosenborg for the summer months, and the Norwegian sees at least a little bit of Odegaard's thirst for further football learning in the wiry form of the 18-year-old Henderson, who is caught in the double bind of being arguably the best under-19 player in Scotland but only a second-level talent in his squad.

"He (Odegaard) would struggle," said Deila. "In my opinion Martin Odegaard is one of the most most talented 16-year-olds in the world, maybe even the number one, but he's not better than a top Tippeligaen player. He's not better than Kris Commons. He's not even close.

"How many 16 or 17-year-olds do you see in the Champions League or in the Premier League? If you take the whole Premier League, it's one teenager on average in every round of fixtures. When Arsenal say they have a young team there's no teenagers, everyone is 22, 23, 24-years-old. Wayne Rooney was one but his neck was huge when he was 16-years-old. So it's the physical aspect as well.

"But Martin is different, he can be world class. What is good about him is that he works the right way, he doesn't think he's a world-class player, but he thinks he can be and he loves training and playing. That's what's good about Liam Henderson as well. When I asked about Rosenborg he said 'yes'. It's positive for him. He wasn't thinking 'I should play at Celtic', he wants to play, he's ambitious and he's not finished, he's just going for the next thing all the time."

The point to all this is that Deila is clearly desperate to find a way to bridge the gap between the development ranks and the Celtic first team and feels that more of his players moving abroad on-loan is one way to square the circle. While he had four Under-20 players training with his first team squad at Lennoxtown last week, getting game time in this Parkhead side, is another matter.

"Liam Henderson, for me, is maybe the best under-19 player in Scotland but his level is a good Scottish Premiership player," said Deila. "He would play in 70-80 per cent, maybe even 90 per cent, of the teams. But it's important to tell a young player you are the best player at under-17 in Scotland but you are only a Second Division player for me. But you have the best chance to get up there. He has been the closest of the youngsters. He was born in 1996, and he has played 15 games for us, that's good at Celtic. And there are a lot of good places around Europe where you can go, and they take care of players in the right way and develop them in the right direction. Rosenborg is one of them."

While this is Deila's first chance to oversee his side through pre-season and into the Champions League qualifiers, the bad news for the players is that it will also be the first time they will have to follow one of his programmes during off-season. With little time between the Scottish Cup final at the end of May, as well as Scotland's crucial European qualifier in Dublin on June 13, and the resumption of Champions League qualifying, there will be little downtime for Celtic's players this summer.

"I'm not going to tell them what they have to do every single day, they're grown-ups, they have to be responsible for themselves," said Deila. "But everyone knows their target. If we win the league, we'll be going to the Champions League and everyone at this club wants that - so you have to show me you want it."

Celtic still want plenty of honours this season, of course. With the League Cup already in the bag, and a Scottish Cup semi final to come against Inverness Caledonian Thistle, their next league assignment comes against Partick Thistle in midweek. James Forrest, the wonderkid before last to come through the ranks at the club, got the opener in the 2-0 victory at St Mirren on Friday night. Free from injury at last, he felt the benefit of being taken away by Scotland manager Gordon Strachan on international duty, even if he didn't make it off the bench against either Northern Ireland or Gibraltar.

"It was really good to be back in the squad," said Forrest. "It was a really good week and hopefully I'll be fit until the end of the season, so I can be back in the set-up at the end of the season. I know with the ability I've got, maybe I'm different from the players that were in the squad and maybe that's why I was in it. I just need to keep doing what I'm doing. It was good being in it but I want to go away and play the next time."

Having earned his side a penalty on Friday night to go with his opener, a sheepish Forrest refused to reprise his Hampden histrionics and allowed Stefan Johansen to successfully hit the spot kick.

"I would have hit it again, 100 per cent," said Forrest. "But there are boys in line so there was no problem giving it to Stefan."