Adam Idah was not a last resort panic signing, according to Brendan Rodgers, as he claimed the new Celtic forward has the same sort of potential that Moussa Dembele had when he first arrived at the club.

Idah joined Celtic on loan from Norwich City late on Thursday night, with the announcement of his arrival coming just before the end of the transfer window.

Idah himself said he first heard of Celtic’s interest on Monday, but Rodgers insists that the player was not forced upon him by the club after they failed to deliver his preferred targets.

“No, that wasn’t the case,” Rodgers said.

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“I’d players that were presented. That’s what it is. You have a number of options and then you pick the option.

“If the option isn’t right when you use the knowledge of the squad you have, then you don’t take it. You just add a name and then it all looks great if they are not going to fit the squad.

“I didn’t want to do that. I said before that if I was bringing in players, I wanted to bring in better.

“I’ve had players like this before who people maybe doubt but he’s still young. He’s 22-years of age. But he has genuine quality. If I can unlock that with him…he has everything.”

The comparisons with Dembele may appear far-fetched at this stage, but Rodgers said that he has similar attributes to the Frenchman, and he believes he can be the man to unlock the Republic of Ireland international’s potential.

“I remember when Moussa Dembele came up here, the qualities he had,” he said.

“Adam, his goals to game ratio, and having arguably played at a higher level, is arguably greater.

“Moussa went on and had a brilliant career here and I’m hoping Adam can do that as well. Because he’s quick, big, strong and has a nice touch. He just needs some structure to his game and an objective to his game to get him into areas to score goals.

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“He’s shown he can do that. His actual conversion of chances ratio is good. But he’s got to get into those areas.

“Obviously a lot those chances that have been talked about are in the Premier League, which is such a high level. He was an 18-year-old and was in about that.

“He’s 22, six foot two, quick, strong, is a good guy, he’s clever, he’s not daft. And he comes here with a mindset to do well, and hopefully we’ll benefit from that for this period, and let’s see what happens after that.”