Celtic should not entertain any low-ball offer for Nicolas Kuhn.

It’s good to see tonight that some of the websites are finally stating the obvious on our German winger, Nicolas Kühn.

Listen, I’ve said it before I expect this window to be one where there’s some turnover in the squad. I expect it to be a transfer window where key players do leave—at least a couple of them, and certainly one of them for sure.

Kühn has been at this club for less than two years. He’s still on a long contract. But the logic says that if he wants to go, there’s no point trying to hang onto him. There’s no sense in keeping a player who’ll go in the huff, won’t perform, and won’t produce for you.

If he wants to go, then he’s going to go. But he goes on our timeline and for the fee we demand—the one that reflects his value.

Let’s be honest: the reason it was so easy to dismiss the Maeda rumours earlier in the window is that £9 million for Daizen is an insult—to him and to us. Kühn is worth what Daizen is, and that’s not £15 million any more than it is £9 million. Those numbers insult the players, and they insult this club. If you’re not starting with a two—or even a three—we shouldn’t even take your call.

We’re not the Ibrox club, making unreasonable, crazy demands about a guy they’ve had inside the building who’s played a handful of games. Kühn arrived here via Austria and Germany. He’s played in the Bundesliga.

He was exceptional against Bundesliga sides last season. If a team from that league wants to come and get him, well, they have the money—so come and pay a reasonable fee. Anything less is a waste of their time and ours.

I understand the concept of selling an unhappy player before his mood tanks the dressing room. But these guys are professionals at the end of the day, and they should be told that professionalism will be rewarded and stroppiness will be punished. We’ve offered Nicolas a new deal. If the move doesn’t come this summer, he should be told the new deal is still on the table—and that he’ll be looked after, pampered, and become one of our highest earners until the right move does come.

But the right move for him is the one that’s also right for us.

If some club wants to pay a lowball fee and undersell him, that’s probably not the right club for him to go to. If a club knows his value and pays us accordingly, that’s more like it. That’s in the ballpark of the kind of team he should be aiming to join—one that treats us with respect and him with the respect of a big number.

Kühn has played well for Celtic in the last 12 months, but he’s not irreplaceable. This is not Maeda we’re talking about here—he’d be a far bigger loss if he also goes. Nicolas has had a good chunk of a season, but his downturn in form towards the end was noticeable—and becoming irritating.

I don’t think he exactly shone against the club across the city either, despite numerous chances to do so. And while that’s not the be-all and end-all of a Celtic player’s career, I like to know that the big guns can shine on that stage. I like to know that’s where they put their best foot forward.

I don’t want to see us lose any key player, but if one was going to go, this is the one most of us expected. If he does go, it’ll be with regret—and not all of that regret will be on our side. We’ve seen enough players leave this club and be desperately unhappy afterwards to know that some of that regret will come from him—if not immediately, then certainly down the line.

But there should be no question of us letting him go for less than we think he’s worth. And that’s a figure that starts with a 2—just to even get us in the room. £15 million is not a number we can take seriously.

If that’s the best they can do, they can look somewhere else. That’s the message we should be sending. Because if he plays in another Champions League group stage and does as well in that as he did the first time, then next summer—when we choose to sell—we’ll get twice that.

There has to be a bit of give and take. If we’re asking him to hang around, then we’ve got to make it worth his while. But if we do that, then he has to do his part. He has to play. He has to play well. And he has to make it worth it.

Obviously, if the right offer comes in—something in the £20 million-plus range—we’d do well to accept it and hand the whole lot straight to the manager. I’m sure he could find not just one use for it, but several.

Instead of strengthening just one area of the team, we could go out and fix the problems we saw last season—and fix all of them.

So I’m not against the idea of selling him.

But it has to work for Celtic. And £15 million? That is not the best offer they can make. And it is not one we should find remotely acceptable.