Turnbull was a big hit with manager long before move
Neil Lennon was instantly impressed by David Turnbull two years before eventually taking the midfielder to Celtic Park, according to Stephen Craigan.
Now the Celtic boss has to decide whether to put his undoubted faith in the 21-yearold for Sunday's William Hill Scottish Cup final against Hearts or standby the players who have helped the club win the previous 11 domestic trophies.
Turnbull has lit up Celtic's play in the past two games, with victories against Lille and Kilmarnock providing respite after a run of two wins from the previous 12 matches.
The Scotland Under -21s player scored his first goal for Celtic and set up two more having been handed starts after a series of substitute appearances following his move from Mother well earlier this season.
Lennon first picked out Turnbull's talent while manager of Hibernian as he watched the club's under-20s side, featuring the likes of Ryan Por te - ous and Jamie Gullan, b eat Craigan's Mother well before they collected the Develop - ment League trophy.
Craig an told the Football Pass You Tube channel :" I was talking to Neil while the players were getting their medals and he actually said tome quietly :' Who' s your number eight? I really like him'.
"I said: 'It's David Turnbull and you need to keep your eye on him because he's a top player'.
"He said: 'Even for the result, he was the one player that stood out for me'.
"Coaches and managers keep an eye on players so he would have been interested to see when David stepped into the Motherwell first team and how he would react.
"To get 15 goals from November 2018 to May 2019 from midfield as a 19-year-old was incredible and eventually Neil took him to Celtic."
Craigan believes Turnbull is the best young player he has worked with.
"Nothing fazed David," the former Motherwell skip per added ." Going from 16- yearold top lay in gun der-18s, under-20s, playing in Motherwell's first team, and watching him the last couple of games for Celtic, he still plays the same way.
"He wants to get on the ball, he wants to find pockets of space, he wants to affect the game going forward, he wants to get shots off.
"He is probably a little bit away fitness wise, he will get sharper and stronger, so the only way I see him going is upwards."
Lennon now has to decide whether to stick with Turnbull, Is mail a Soro and goalkeeper Con or Hazard after they came in two games ago at the expense of Scott Brown, Tom Rogic and Ryan Christie and experienced keepers Scott Bain and Vasilis Barkas.
"Neil has got a dilemma, no doubt about it, but it's prob - ably a dilemma he has been looking forward to over the last couple of months because he has been picking teams and they have been losing games," Craigan said.
"They have now won back-toback games and I can imagine if Soro and David Turn bull don't star t the game, I think there could be another pro - test outside Celtic Park.
"I think them playing in the final and potentially winning could be the making of them, because when you go to Celtic it's all about winning trophies. This could be a real turning point for those young players to really establish themselves."