Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has rebuffed suggestions that a buy-out clause of £7m would secure the services of French under-21 striker Odsonne Edouard on a permanent deal this summer.

Edouard is entering into the latter months of a season-long loan deal from parent club PSG and while Rodgers confirmed that there is a clause agreed between the two clubs for a player whom he regards as the "most natural striker" at Celtic, he has maintained that the figure quoted is inaccurate.

“Where have you got the figure from?” said Rodgers in response to the perceived sum for Edouard. “No – it’s not that. I’m not telling you what it is, but it’s not that."

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If Rodgers was irked at the misinformation he has nothing but praise for the raw talent of the striker. Edouard has netted eight goals in 24 appearances for Celtic this season, with the bulk of his game time coming off the bench. The striker netted a hat-trick against Motherwell back in December but his most high profile performance for the Parkhead side came with his display against Rangers at Ibrox when Celtic came twice from behind to win 3-2 and effectively seal a seventh successive title.

“I’ve said from day dot that I see the player every day and he’s one of the most gifted players I’ve worked with," enthused Rodgers. “Because his representatives aren’t running about throwing him to every club under the sun it doesn’t mean he’s not a top player.

“There’s no propaganda around him, but he’s a top talent. He’s settled in well and if we have any chance to do something at the end of the season then we can look at that. We have to respect he’s a PSG player, not a Celtic player. There is a clause in the deal.

“The clause is there and there’s been an agreement but we would need to trigger the fee. There’s a lot to do in terms of the bigger picture too. In time we’ll see. He’s a fantastic player and we’ll see between now and the end of the season.”

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As Celtic push now for what would be the unique achievement of a back-to-back treble, Edouard will be expected to feature prominently in the run-in. Moussa Dembele, the striker's fellow countryman, has recently shown the clinical and aggressive streak that was the hallmark of his inaugural season at the club but Leigh Griffiths remains sidelined for now with a calf injury. Of the trio of forwards that Rodgers has at his disposal, it is Edouard whom he believes is the most natural in front of goal.

“He is the most natural of all our strikers in how he moves," observed the Celtic manager. "His movement is phenomenal for a young player. How he drifts in and out of space. Then his actual speed to get in behind. It is very early in his career but if you measure him coming through at PSG and France, he is a record goalscorer. He has the ability to score goals.

“He trains well every days. He does things on the training ground that amaze me, really. Just his ability. And he is tough. He is a tough boy. So he is a really big talent and I have always felt, even when he hasn’t played, that he has that talent. Like any young player, there is lots to improve on but he is a big weapon for us whether he starts or comes off the bench.”

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Celtic full-back Kieran Tierney revealed in the immediate aftermath of the game against Rangers that Edouard was the quietest player in the dressing room as the Parkhead side celebrated a victory that effectively sealed a seventh successive title.

And that temperament is what Rodgers believes marks the player out as he takes the initial steps on his senior career.

“You see him after the game at Ibrox,” he said. “People are jumping about and rightly so. He is walking about as if “what’s going on here”. It can be real strength that because he never gets too disappointed or too high. But he knows he is a player.”

If Celtic's French connection provided the cornerstone of that win against Rangers then it was of no surprise to Rodgers.

There was an argument that Olivier Ntcham was a man of the match candidate for his part in that Ibrox victory such was his influence on proceedings. Latterly Ntcham has shown an elegance combined with a physicality in the middle of the park that suggests he is the closest Celtic have come to replacing Victor Wanyama since the Kenyan internationalist left the club for Southampton in 2013.

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“It is just about bedding him in,” said Rodgers. “When he came in it was about one game a week. You have to remember he played 38 games over two seasons in Genoa.

“He was virtually up to that in one season here. So that takes time to adapt and then you add pressure to that as well. It’s just been about building his way through. He started to recover better in games and be able to go again in the next one.

“Now we are at a stage of the season where it is virtually one game a week, he can cope with that really well.

“You see his qualities. And he has no ego.He is a big talent.”