CELTIC are facing up to the prospect of losing yet another of their star men.

With the Bhoys already closing in on their replacement, Kieran Tierney is edging towards Arsenal after protracted negotiations between the clubs.

The young left-back is a hugely popular figure at Parkhead but every player has his price, particularly in the Scottish Premiership, and Celtic are set to get the £25million they asked for.

If and when Tierney moves south, he will join a wealth of players who have left Glasgow and made it big.

Here, we detail where Celtic's former stars would fit into today's team and provide a full line-up of their ex-players – who would trouble a great number of teams on their own.

FORS-ING HIS WAY IN

Celtic have had a number of top goalkeepers over the years but Fraser Forster left for Southampton five years ago, turning down the chance to hold the Hoops' No1 jersey for at least a decade.

Injuries continue to take their toll on the six-capped England man but he would still walk into Neil Lennon's side.

Of the full-backs to been sold for a fee, Adam Matthews and Danny Fox are the most notable who still play today – albeit without a team in the case of Matthews.

Neither would edge out Tierney or Hatem Abd Elhamed, who is in the early days of his SPFL career having only signed in July.

There is one man who would stroll comfortably into any team in the world, however.

Virgil van Dijk cost just £2.6m when Celtic were the only major club willing to sign the lanky Groningen defender in 2013, selling him for over five times that amount two-and-a-half years later.

The Scottish champions would settle for Kristoffer Ajer ascending in a similar manner, the £650,000 Norwegian now valued at £15m and beating Dedryck Boyata to appear in this combined XI.

WAN TO WATCH

The advent of signing up-and-coming players and selling them to Southampton for eight-figure fees continues into the midfield.

Victor Wanyama swapped Scotland for the South Coast after two years of crunching tackles in Glasgow, and remains a top performer now at Tottenham.

A collection of similarly boisterous midfielders have been and gone at Celtic, most notably Joe Ledley and Beram Kayal.

Whether they, or Fulham man Stefan Johansen, could expect to keep Scott Brown and Callum McGregor out the team – let alone weekend hat-trick Ryan Christie – is debatable.

The final Celtic-to-Southampton man to feature in this list is Stuart Armstrong.

The 27-year-old was arguably the least successful of the big money exports last season as he struggled to get going in the Premier League.

However it is fair to assume he would beat Scott Sinclair and Michael Johnston to a place in Lennon's side, moved out to the wing with James Forrest on the opposite flank.

Finally, a plethora of strikers who are still firing today have pulled on the Hoops.

Gary Hooper is without a club and far from the player he once was but one man who has improved hugely since leaving is Teemu Pukki.


The Finnish forward is set to lead the line for Norwich in the English top-flight and yet struggled at Celtic, scoring just nine goals before a £500,000 exit to Brondby.

Even he cannot surpass the efforts of Moussa Demble, though.

Netting over 50 goals and securing all six domestic titles on offer in his two years at Celtic, the club banked a tasty £20m when cashing in on the Frenchman last summer.

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