Ex-Celtic midfielder Peter Grant claims the Hoops are being “priced out of the market” for Scottish players like Kevin Nisbet.

The striker is expected to complete a £2.5m move to Millwall but Grant claims that, if the Hoops had enquired about the player, Hibernian would have demanded double that figure:

“The price goes right up. If Celtic phone Hibs you know the price is going up right away. The English teams, the amount of money they get is phenomenal. And it’s value for money the manager is probably looking at it. You look at Celtic’s new signing and he’s two and a half million pounds and Hibs are asking for four or five million from Celtic, you can see the reason why that doesn’t happen.”

“We said in the summer about young [Lewis] Ferguson about young [Josh] Doig, both of them and Celtic were looking for midfielders or left backs, you’re thinking all day long. As I say, there must be a reason why. Whether they get priced out of the market. It’s not down to the boy’s talent.”

You can partly understand why Scottish Premiership teams would hike up the price for Celtic. They don’t want their former players coming back to haunt them when they face them again in league matches.

However, if Grant is correct, and Hibs were demanding £4m to £5m for Nisbet, it really is cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Celtic would probably have been prepared to match or even pay more than Millwall, going by the fee they shelled out on Oh Hyeon-gyu.

Perhaps manager Ange Postecoglou simply had a preference for the South Korean forward anyway, but the Nisbet situation does leave you scratching your head. Just last week, ex-Hoops star Kieran Tierney was singing the praises of his Scottish international teammate, and yet he is now destined for the second tier of English football.