CELTIC LATEST OLIVIER
hospital. Zander’s been conscious throughout it all and had a bit of discomfort in his neck. I’m hoping it’s a precautionary measure.
“Their lad’s caught him by accident with his knee so he’s taken a bang to the head but I’m hoping he’ll be fine.”
Wright ran the rule over trialist Romain Habran – and the ex-PSG and France Under-20 ace impressed in the last 15 minutes.
Wright added: “If you look at the players they had out on the pitch, players who have huge experience in the Premier League, we did well.”
Both sets of supporters united in the sixth minute to pay respects to Bradley Lowery – the six-year- old Black Cats fan who lost his cancer battle last week.
St Johnstone started the match well but were stung in 11 minutes when the ref gave a penalty for a foul on Jeremain Lens. Vaughan stepped up but his kick was saved by Clark.
MacLean opened the scoring in 19 minutes from an indirect free-kick before Wotherspoon struck in the 21st and 24th minutes to kill the game.
Now Celtic’s third summer signing intends to help convince his fellow Frenchman to stick around so he can serve up some more goals at club level.
Ntcham became close pals with Dembele during their progression through Les Bleus’ youth ranks with the pair playing together from Under-16 level all the way up to Under-21.
The ex- Manchester City midfielder watched goal machine Dembele become a scorching success in his debut season at Celtic with a stunning 32 goals in their invincible Treble campaign.
The big guns in England are ready to pounce while there has been long-standing interest in the former Fulham frontman from AC Milan as well as Marseille.
But now they’re together in Scotland, Ntcham is desperately hoping his close friend doesn’t take off for one of Europe’s top leagues before they get a chance to be properly reacquainted.
The 21-year-old, who at £ 4.5million is Celtic’s most expensive player since Scott Brown joined from Hibs a decade ago, said: “Before, when I knew him and we played together in the same team, he was a little bit skinny – seriously.
“He was skinny but that was never a problem. He always scored. Always. He was a striker who would score in every game.
“He’d score every time even if he didn’t play so good.
“After a while, if you haven’t played good you just try to improve the things you didn’t do well. But for scoring he was always top class. I always hoped he would go on to play for some of the best clubs. “Before he was just a striker who scored goals. Of course you need to improve in the game. Every season Moussa has been progressing so it is no surprise to see how well he has been doing in his career. “I always felt we had a good unders tanding because we always played together. I would provide him with the assists for goals – it’s my worth. “You have to a sk h im the