JASON DENAYER last night handed Celtic a blow by revealing he wants to return to Manchester City next season.
The Belgian defender has enjoyed an excellent season at Parkhead with the Hoops on course for the treble and still in Europe.
Celtic boss Ronny Deila has made it clear he would love to extend the stopper's loan for another season and Ajax have also been credited with an interest.
But Denayer believes he will have a role to play in the English champion's side next term, where he could link up with international team mate Vincent Kompany.
He said: "I hope next season to be ready to play for City.
"If I ever get the chance to play alongside Vincent Kompany then I know I will have made it.
"I get compared with him now, but that's only because we play for City and are Belgian.
"I don't think we even have similar styles and if I want to make a name for myself rather than this image of the 'new Kompany.'
"But my view is that I will return to City next season."
But Denayer admits he's learned a lot from his season in Glasgow.
He said: "The Celtic manager called me in the summer and said he wanted me to fit into his plans.
"It's gained me experience of playing in the Champions League.
"I knew it would be difficult to get a game for City so going on loan was my best option.
"I scored in my first match for Celtic and I immediately felt like I belonged there.
"It helps we have someone there like John Collins, who used to be manager of Charleroi and speaks French."
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