CELTIC want to extend Jason Denayer's loan deal for at least another year by persuading Manchester City he will be improved by regular Champions League football next season.
The 19-year-old Belgian is on loan from City for the rest of the current campaign and has already shown so much improvement at Celtic that he was called into the Belgium squad earlier this week. Ronny Deila, the Celtic manager, yesterday revealed that his intention is to win the SPFL Premiership and then tell City that Denayer would be best served by sampling Europe's premier club tournament with Celtic.
Denayer joined City in 2013 but has not played a competitive game for them and is below Vincent Kompany, Martin Demichelis and Eliaquim Mangala among others, in the pecking order at the Etihad. But before his eighth Celtic appearance in midweek he was called up to the Belgium squad for their Euro 2016 ties against Andorra and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Deila said: "I hope that we can build him up but also keep him for the Champions League, if we win the league and get into the Champions League next year, so that he can be an important player in that role as well. If we build someone up and then lose him it's hard to get that relationship back again.
"We have a very good co-operation with City, there are good bonds there. We talk well together. [Denayer] is very young still to be playing at this level and if we win the league and go into the Champions League it would be a perfect scenario for him because it is a very high level and he maybe needs a couple of years there. They are happy with what is happening here with him. I had a co-operation with City at Stromsgodset as well."
Deila's view is that the connection with City can be mutually beneficial for both clubs. Celtic also have John Guidetti on loan from the Etihad. "City is now at a level [in the transfer market] where we are not picking up players from, and they have a lot of players who need to develop. Their under-20 group has unbelievably good players. I think we can help each other and that is positive."
Guidetti is out of contract with City at the end of this season
and Celtic would be free to speak to him in January about the possibility of a permanent move.
Deila has changed his position on loan deals, having said in July that they were not ideal because "you don't want to develop other clubs' talent and not get any money for it". Now Denayer, Guidetti, Wakaso Mubarak, Aleksandar Tonev and Jo Inge Berget are all at the club on a temporary basis.
"In Stromsgodset we didn't have money so we had to have something else," said Deila, referring to his former club. "We said 'come here and you'll get to play, you'll get a real education and will develop as a player'. That's what we've started here."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article