Edouard steal would sum up Celtic

THERE’S no smoke without fire. And even if £15million is pushing it a bit, as Celtic caretaker John Kennedy suggests, it isn’t hard to see why Leicester City think they will be able to land Odsonne Edouard on the cheap.

He has a year left on his existing deal and no evident desire for a new one. Hardly the recipe for a game of hardball.

If the Frenchman does end up going for something south of £20m, though, it will surely be the final insult in the ever-unravelling catastrophe of the Parkhead club’s season.

This is the guy they supposedly saw being worth double that a year ago. The guy who had his eye on a move, going by Neil Lennon’s revelations, and then ended up playing like a sloth on Valium for months when he didn’t get it.

Celtic may say they received only one offer from Germany that was well below value, but isn’t that the way things are likely to play out when you insist you aren’t interested in selling?

Edouard (right) could easily have been punted for decent money with minimal effort. Given what you hear about the sell-on fee due to Paris Saint-Germain, anything below £20m would barely see Celtic clear the £10m they paid to the French club three years ago.

Put it this way, if chairman Ian Bankier finds himself writing a letter to the Stock Exchange come July to let them know the guy who was supposed to be their prime asset has gone for £20m or less, he should tag on a Post-It note to let them know he’s on the way out as well.

Come to mention it, why hasn’t Bankier followed the example of Lennon and Peter Lawwell and bailed out already?