Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has revealed that he has been tracking Olivier Ntcham for the last eight months and believes that the midfielder has the potential to go on and flourish at Celtic Park.
The Hoops confirmed on Wednesday that they had completed the signing of the 21-year-old from Premier League side Manchester City, convincing him to put pen to paper to a four-year contract.
The youngster, who spent the last two seasons on loan at Serie A side Genoa, becomes Rodgers' third signing of the summer after Jonny Hayes and Kundai Benyu, with his manager making no attempt to hide his excitement at having got the player.
According to the former Liverpool manager, Ntcham has all the abilities to become a top quality player in the future and having watched him closely, Rodgers insists that the Manchester City academy recruit is both technically and tactically gifted and for a team looking to make progress at European level over the next couple of years the midfielder could be an important addition.
“I felt that, especially for the higher level, the speed and the power of the game involved is now very apparent, having worked there and having worked with players at that level”, Rodgers told his club's official website.
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“To make progress over the next couple of seasons, particularly at the European level, it is important for us to have those physical attributes in there.
“Olivier is a player I have been looking at for near on eight months now, so I was aware of him in the second half of last season and before that.
“He’s a player I always felt could work well for us.
"He has everything: he’s 21 years of age, he’s got a little bit of experience in playing senior football, but now he really needs that opportunity to go and flourish.
“Technically, he’s very gifted and, tactically, he understands the game at a good level. He has many different technical qualities – he can pass, he can dribble and he can shoot.
"He’s highly gifted. Physically he has everything – he is powerful, quick and good in the duel.
“Mentally, it’s just a case of him taking the next steps in his career, coming to play at a huge club with big demands and opportunity to play in the Champions League. For us, it’s a very big signing.
"The market out there is hard to get players of that quality, and it will hopefully prove to be a very good signing.
“Now the responsibility is with him. It’s there for him. If he can come in and flourish like a lot of the other ones have, then he should hopefully have a fantastic Celtic career.”
