Neil Lennon has revealed how a Development Squad friendly led to Celtic signing Jeremie Frimpong.
The defender earned rave reviews following his SPFL debut against Ross County on Saturday with the Celtic boss delighted at the way the teenager is progressing.
Scouting and recruitment is often portrayed as a form of science arising from statistics and analysis but on this occasion, Lennon had a hunch that the young kid at Manchester City might just have something special to offer.
Celtic and City played each other in a bounce game in July, for one player on the pitch his career was soon about to take a few unexpected twists.
In an interview with Celtic TV Lennon explained:
It was only two or three months ago that Manchester City brought a Development team up to play our Development team and Jeremie was playing in the game. I was very, very impressed by what I saw and when I spoke to Damien (Duff), he had watched the game and John (Kennedy) had looked at the analysis and we were very impressed.
And then when Nick (Hammond) came in the building, we were looking for a right-back we threw it to him and he had heard good things, he had seen him and obviously background reports. All of a sudden, an opportunity came up to do the deal. Peter (Lawwell) to be fair was right at the forefront of that as well because Jerry would come under the bracket of emerging talent which is really important for the club.
So at 19, for the money that we have paid we think that we have an outstanding talent on our hands. And what you see on the pitch is what we see away from the pitch, a little energetic buzz-bomb, he is all personality. He is just really proud to be here, the week leading into the Ross County game his training levels were outstanding, it was just impossible to leave him out of the team.
Frimpong signed a four-year contract on transfer deadline day with the precise details unknown. A development fee is certain with City likely to have a substantial sell-on clause that could also include a buy-back option.
At the start of July Tony Ralston was the only right-back at Celtic, on Thursday night Lennon will have Frimpong, Moritz Bauer and Hatem Abd Elhamed to select from for the Europa League match against Lazio.