Lennon Miller should sign for Celtic and end the not-so-subtle doubts about his ability.

Last week, as everybody knows, Brendan Rodgers sat in front of the media. One of the things he said was that Celtic remains committed to signing the best young Scottish players around.

Lennon Miller, who has won every single Young Player of the Year award that this country has to offer this season, may or may not be the player he had in mind when he said this. But it’s believed that Miller will leave Motherwell this summer, and that Celtic will be part of the discussion.

We’ve heard a lot of talk out of Lennon Miller’s camp about a player who only wants to go somewhere he’s guaranteed first-team football.

I can only refer back, as I have previously, to the statements made by Ange Postecoglou. When that was put to him—about players who want to be guaranteed a starting eleven place every week—he said quite plainly that you can get that at clubs, but you will not get it at a big club. Not ever.

If Miller wants to go to a big club next, he’s going to have to have complete confidence in himself—the kind of confidence that is unshakable.

He has to believe that if he goes to a big club, he can fit right into the team, that he won’t be sitting on the bench every week. And that, in fact, is the reason some are giving for why he shouldn’t move to Celtic. Some people in the Scottish media are desperate to see him go virtually anywhere else.

It’s a subject that already feels done to death.

But I do find it slightly disgusting, all the pressure that’s being put on him not to stay in Scotland, not to sign for the Scottish Champions, not to give the best years of his career to our game—a game that is forever going on about how there aren’t enough talented Scottish-born players in it.

We love to gaze across the water at Scottish players doing well elsewhere, and it all feeds into the idea that this is a backwater league.

But more than anything else, it’s the idea that this is all about us. I mean, it’s been stated by people in the media who don’t want him to stay in Scotland that the reason they feel that way is because they know it’ll be with Celtic—because no other club in this country could afford to buy him. I cannot help but think that is the sole reason for their opposition. Because it’s us.

He’s getting a lot of advice, but I think all of it sells him short. Because I think he is good enough to play for Celtic. I think he would play a lot of games. I think eventually, once he’s grown into the role, he becomes a first-team regular. He’ll have plenty of time beyond that point to go on and play abroad, if that’s what he wants.

But in the meantime, he can stay here in Scotland, play for the best club in the country, and win a bunch of trophies. He’ll be well-compensated for doing something great.

It is shocking how parochial and small-minded the Scottish media are about this. Imagine wanting Scotland’s Young Player of the Year not to stay in Scotland. Imagine newspaper editorials virtually begging him to leave the country and go and play somewhere else. That is astonishing.

That would never happen in England. It is insulting to those of us who know what the real motivation is.

It’s already been noted—already been said—that if he were a target for the Ibrox club, and they had even the remotest, tiniest chance of getting him, none of this would be getting talked about. None of this would be an issue.

They would be urging him, in fact, to do the opposite of what they are urging him to do now. They’d be basically demanding that he go to Ibrox, and that everyone else clear a path to make it happen. They’d line up every player they could to talk about how great life at Ibrox can be when you’re part of a winning team.

I haven’t seen a single editorial from a mainstream journalist urging this guy to stay here, to sign for Celtic, to prove he’s good enough to play for the biggest club in the country. Because—well, because some of them don’t believe he is good enough.

They must be under the impression that he’s a lesser player than that, to write some of the things they write. But let me tell you what it is—no one’s publishing the articles urging him to stay in Scotland.

Nobody wants to promote that message—a hopeful message. Because it’s Celtic. And that’s the bottom line here. This is not about him. This is about us. And over the course of the summer, I think we may well give him a decision to make. And you know what? I hope he ignores all the naysayers, and everybody who says he’s not good enough. If he believes he is good enough, he should sign for us.

Because for some of us, the question’s always going to remain unanswered. Wherever he goes, it’ll always linger: did he turn Celtic down because he didn’t think he was good enough to come here and play every week? Was it because he didn’t think he could handle the pressure? Maybe he can’t.

That’s what an awful lot of people in the media seem to be saying. And if I were this kid, I’d want to shut them all up and prove them all wrong.