John Hartson: Paulo Bernardo could be Celtic's next £20m sale

Former Celtic star John Hartson believes Paulo Bernardo could go on to be the club’s next big money sale, after he impressed in the win over Rangers.

Bernardo spent last season on loan at Celtic from Benfica, playing 33 times but with a good portion of his appearances coming from the bench.

He impressed enough for Celtic to make his move permanent in the summer, and with Matt O’Riley having departed for Brighton, manager Brendan Rodgers handed him a start in the first derby of the season. Bernardo played his part in Celtic’s comfortable 3-0 win and Hartson believes he’ll continue to develop into a valuable asset for the club.

“Brendan likes signing players that he feels he can improve,” he said. “Brendan’s brilliant on the training ground and he likes to work with them.

“You look at Bernardo now, who was absolutely terrific at the weekend. He’ll probably be the next £15m or £20m player to go from Celtic.

“He’s that good. Matt O’Riley was £1.5m from MK Dons a couple of years ago, you’ve got Kieran Tierney coming through from the youth team, Moussa Dembele who cost £500,000 and they sold him for £20m.

“It’s remarkable but it’s down to hard work from Brendan, his style and putting them in when they’re ready.”

Celtic had a busy transfer window, with Bernardo only one of a number of new recruits. Kasper Schmeichel, Alex Valle, Auston Trusty, Arne Engels and Adam Idah were also brought in and Hartson believes that ticked the right boxes.

“I thought they covered most of the areas,” he said. “They got a left back in, they got a centre back in. A central midfielder and Adam Idah in attack.

“One of the best signings for me was Kasper Schmeichel to replace Joe Hart who was a fans’ favourite, great in the dressing room and really vociferous around the place. So to get another world class goalkeeper who has had a great career was a great bit of business.”

That, along with a start to the season that has seen the Premiership champions win all five of their games, scoring 15 goals along the way, has Celtic in a good place.

“They’re riding the crest of a wave at the minute,” Hartson said. “They’ve got momentum, they’ve had a really good window and they’ve got some terrific players now.

“They’ve got a real style and there’s a terrific buzz around Celtic.

“They’ve got Champions League to come now as well, eight fantastic games. The crowd will be delighted with that and I can remember playing in the Champions League and those nights are what you take away from being a Celtic player, if you can manage to be successful.

“The boys are doing really, really well.”

John Hartson was speaking at the Scottish Legends Golf Series at Loch Lomond.