A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Olivier Ntcham might still have a future at the club.
I said it would be decided on a cost-benefit analysis; how much could we realistically get for him, and is that sum worth more than having Ntcham on the books for a year?
The debate is complicated by a number of factors; his willingness to knuckle down and play, his ability to make a contribution to the team and his ability to work under a new manager and with a new squad.
There is little doubt that a fully-fit and willing-to-work Ntcham offers us something that we’d struggle to beat with the modest fee we’d get for him.
It seems that a number of media persons, some of them close to the club, have come to the same conclusion and not just about the Frenchman but about Maryan Shved as well.
There hasn’t been as much about Jack Hendry, but then there isn’t a lot we can do there. His current club has an option to buy and if they exercise that right and he wants to stay he will.
Ntcham is the wild card, and particularly when we are going to need at least two players in the midfield to replace those who are going in the summer; Brown and Christie.
Ntcham has played in various roles for our club; he needs a manager who gives him one set position and a particular job to do. I think that would bring out the best in this player.
He has to know himself that his best chance of getting the move he thinks he deserves is to knuckle down and show what he can do. If he leaves Celtic now it will almost certainly not be for the sort of club he believed he was destined to play for.
The only way Olivier Ntcham gets the career he thinks he deserves is to actually deserve it.
He needs to deliver on all the promise, not the self-made hype.
The idea of keeping him until his contract runs out is gathering momentum, and it has surely been talked about inside Celtic Park.
It is a smart solution to an annoying problem, and if he can give us a season that comes close to his best it will be well worth hanging onto him.