Former Celtic striker John Hartson has tipped Paulo Bernardo to become the club’s next big-money asset.
The 22-year-old Portuguese midfielder featured 33 times on loan for the Parkhead club last season, where he did enough in the William Hill Premiership and Scottish Gas Scottish Cup-winning campaign to earn a permanent transfer in the summer, returning on a five-year contract.
Bernardo has filled the gap left by Matt O’Riley, who moved to Brighton for a fee reported to be £25million, and helped Brendan Rodgers’ side beat Rangers 3-0 in their recent league game at Parkhead.
Hartson, who played for Celtic between 2001 and 2006 and now works as a pundit, was speaking at the Scottish Legends Golf Series event in Loch Lomond and told STV News how impressed he has been with the Portugal Under-21 playmaker.
“Brendan likes signing players that he feels he can improve,” Hartson said. “Brendan’s brilliant on the training ground and he likes to work with them.
“You look at Bernardo now, who was absolutely terrific at the weekend. He’ll probably be the next £15m or £20m player to go from Celtic. He’s that good.
“Matt O’Riley was £1.5m from MK Dons a couple of years ago, you had Kieran Tierney coming through from the youth team, Moussa Dembele who cost £500,000 and they sold him for £20m.
“It’s remarkable but it’s down to hard work from Brendan, his style and putting them in when they’re ready.”
Kasper Schmeichel, Alex Valle, Auston Trusty, Arne Engels and Adam Idah were also brought in during the transfer window to strengthen a squad which is likely to dominate domestically again while also fighting in the newly-expanded Champions League.
Hartson is impressed by the work done on the squad by Rodgers as he looked forward to more big European nights.
“I thought they covered most of the areas,” he said. “They got a left-back in, they got a centre-back in, a central midfielder and Adam Idah in attack.
“One of the best signings for me was Kasper Schmeichel to replace Joe Hart who was a fans’ favourite, great in the dressing room and really vociferous around the place. So to get another world-class goalkeeper who has had a great career was a great bit of business.
“They’re riding the crest of a wave at the minute, they’ve got momentum, they’ve had a really good window and they’ve got some terrific players now.
“They’ve got a real style and there’s a terrific buzz around Celtic. They’ve got Champions League to come now as well, eight fantastic games.
“The crowd will be delighted with that and I can remember playing in the Champions League and those nights are what you take away from being a Celtic player, if you can manage to be successful. The boys are doing really, really well.”
