John Kennedy has admitted that Ali McCann is a player that Celtic have been ‘watching from afar’.
The 21-year-old has had two solid seasons in the St Johnstone midfield and is one match away from picking up his second winners medal of the season.
Although born and brought up in Edinburgh McCann is a full internationalist for Northern Ireland and is expected to attract transfer bids this summer on the back of St Johnstone’s impressive campaign.
Over the last two season’s Celtic have spent big on Greg Taylor and David Turnbull with McCann getting the chance to impress tonight when he goes head-to-head with Scott Brown in his final home appearance as a Celtic player.
Discussing McCann and the domestic transfer market, Kennedy told The Sun:
I think watching him from afar, he’s an impressive young player who has improved with the exposure of first-team football. One thing for Celtic is, we always have to keep our eye on the best young talents in Scotland, that’s the first point.
In terms of where you would want to scout, if there’s good young players in Scotland, then you want to make sure you know about them. He’s obviously one we know well of.
There’s no decision over squads or anything but he’s certainly a good, talented young player. It’s good for Scottish football having a player like that coming through.
With a massive rebuild coming up over the next few months Celtic could do worse than take a close look at the St Johnstone back three of Liam Gordon, Jason Kerr and Jamie McCart.