Former Scotland international Steven Thompson is unsure whether John McGinn would be able to get into Brendan Rodgers' Celtic eleven at once given the kind of competition the Bhoys have in midfield.
The Bhoys have seen Hibernian knock back two bids for McGinn's services as the Easter Road side hold out for a higher fee.
While Thompson is of the opinion that the current Celtic squad needs to be freshened up, he also believes that once a deal for McGinn is over the line the 23-year-old would have to fight for his place in the playing eleven.
"Whether John McGinn would get in their side straight away is another debate", Thompson wrote in his column for the Herald Scotland.
"He has improved every single season I’ve been watching him, but with the way Celtic are currently lining up, it is difficult to see who he could oust to get into the side."
On the comparisons that are being drawn between McGinn and Celtic skipper Scott Brown, Thompson said that the Hibs player lacks that defensive discipline which is an added quality of Brown.
"He isn’t quite the same sort of player as Scott Brown despite the frequent comparisons between the two, with John perhaps lacking a little bit of the defensive discipline that the Celtic captain possesses.
"He likes to make forays forward and try to get involved higher up the park more frequently than Brown would."
There are also a number of other players fighting to start at Celtic which, Thompson believes, would make life even more difficult for McGinn.
"Olivier Ntcham is the other sitting player in there, and as big a fan as I am of John, you would have to say that the young Frenchman has real quality and would be hard to shift.
"And he isn’t quite a number 10 either, so he would probably not get in ahead of the likes of Callum McGregor.
"With Tom Rogic and Nir Bitton still to return to the fold too, it suddenly becomes difficult to see where John sits in the pecking order."
