Johannes Hoff Thorup has potentially poured cold water over Celtic's chances of signing Adam Idah from Norwich City this summer.
Idah played 33 minutes in Norwich's pre-season loss to Club Brugge on Wednesday, but that was all part of the plan according to Thorup, who branded the striker "valuable" and "important" to the Canaries.
Celtic had hoped they could land Idah during the off-season and even have him join their US tour, after he impressed on-loan last time out - ending his temporary spell with a Scottish Cup winning goal against Rangers to earn the Hoops a domestic Double.
But luring the Republic of Ireland international back over the border isn't going to be as straight forward as Brendan Rodgers and the Celtic hierarchy would've anticipated. Especially with the need to sign another forward escalated following Oh Hyeon-gyu's recent departure.
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Thorup has liked what he's seen from Idah during the English Championship clubs training camp in Belgium and was quick to state that the qualities that the 23-year-old possesses.
"Good to see him back," the Norwich head coach said. "He’s been a part of the group now for a little bit more than a week.
“I’ve had a couple of sessions with the boys and important for us to get him started.
“It's important for him to get in and have some minutes again and I think we could see what he can support this team with. So it’s nice to have him back on the pitch and I think he will be a valuable player for us.”
Thorup went on to explain just where he sees Idah fitting into his plans and how he intends to manage his work load while he ramps up his fitness - putting any chance of him departing Carrow Road and re-joining Celtic in further doubt.
He continued: "Like I said at the beginning of pre-season, we consider Adam as an important player for us so that's why he got 30 minutes today which was important for him to get started and get back in the rhythm, nice and easy. He's had more or less one full training week so that's why we were pretty sure that it would only be half an hour today.
"Hopefully, on Saturday we can build him up to a little bit more. From watching his qualities and what he can do, he will be an important player for us. We have to take into consideration this was the first 30 minutes from him for a long while and he will be better. But I think he showed some signs of what we can get out of him.
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"We gave him a couple of passes where he had to chest it and hold it and gave a couple of lay-offs to progress the game. I think he did well in that sense. We could have used him even more in the offensive part of the game but I think that will come. From what I see, it's a matter of time.
"Me and Adam sit down quite often so we've had some good conversations already. He's a good kid. He's working hard and he's funny as well. He gives some energy to the group. We can see what kind of striker he is already and we can definitely use him in the season. So that's what we work with."
