Will thrive in England
and play in the Premier League and you can’t knock him for that.
“The only thing I would say is that this is a really successful period for Celtic.
“They are three titles away from total history – the 10 – and I would imagine most players would want to be part of that.
“But I can understand his move. It’s a short career and he’ll be getting a good contract to go and play in the Premier League.”
Losing Armstrong could be a blow to Celtic’s Champions League preparations, with their First Qualifying Round tie against Armenian side Alashkert just over two weeks away.
However, Donnelly believes the Hoops don’t have far to look to find a ready-made replacement for Armstrong in the Celtic midfield.
“Midfield is a strong area for Brendan Rodgers. But I would be very surprised if they don’t go for John McGinn. I’ve said it for a while – I think he is a Celtic player,” Donnelly said of Hibernian’s Scotland internationalist.
“I was misquoted before as saying he was a successor to Scott Brown, and would be sitting on the bench.
“I don’t think that. I think he is good enough to go right into the Celtic team.
“I think he would be a good signing for them. He gets about the park.
“I’m not sure he is as quick as Stuart, but he is strong and I just think he could go in and learn under Scott Brown.
“Broony is not going to go on forever and, in the meantime, he can train and play with him.”
Simon Donnelly was speaking at the ‘Live it for Lee’ event, an annual charity football game in memory of Lee Jamieson, who tragically lost his battle with leukaemia. Organised by Lee’s family, profits from yesterday’s match will go to BLOODWISE, a UK charity aimed at funding research into beating blood cancers.