Former Celtic midfielder Peter Grant knows his way around the English Championship and understands what an absolute honour it is for a young Celtic supporter to represent the club and go onto establish himself in the Celtic first team.

So he is ideally qualified to pass comment on the strange decision announced this week that after rejecting a contract offer from Celtic Daniel Kelly has opted to sign a pre-contract agreement with Millwall.

Both clubs are now in discussions about an acceptable agreement that will see Kelly depart Celtic Park in this transfer window, with Celtic looking for a fee of around £500k plus add-ons included in the deal. Millwall can opt to wait until 1st January 2024 and pay just half that sum as a cross-border development fee.

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Both Daniel Kelly and Rocco Vata were offered new deals by Celtic with Brendan Rodgers giving assurances that both would be involved in the first team squad this season. Yet Vata opted for Watford and Kelly for Millwall, with Peter Grant being particularly surprised by the latter decision from a player Brendan showed considerable faith in last season.

Grant gave his thoughts on this transfer news, telling Go Radio: “I’m really surprised. He got a couple of opportunities last season and did very well, I was impressed with him.

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“He had good energy, he looks as if he’s got a good football brain. He scored a great goal in one of the games I was at. But I don’t know who is guiding these boys. Millwall or Celtic? Come on. I can’t understand it.

“Listen, if I’ve got a fighting chance at Celtic to play or go to Millwall? Come on. There’s no comparison.

“You’ve got to be willing to fight for a place. My biggest thing that I would have said is ‘Am I ever going to get a chance no matter how well I do? Am I consistently going to be in the team and get an opportunity to get on the pitch?’

“If the answer is no, fine. That means Celtic don’t think that highly of you either. But if they are saying they are giving him a very good offer and opportunities, I’ve got to trust that’s what the club are doing. But to leave Celtic to go to Millwall? It just doesn’t sit right with me.”

Last Friday Callum McGregor announced that he was retiring from international football to concentrate on his Celtic career. That has probably got four or five years remaining. Kelly could and should have been eyeing being a natural successor to Callum, coming through the Celtic Academy, a Celtic supporter and a future Celtic captain in the making.

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If the club was seeing it that way then Kelly would surely have been given ample opportunity to shine under Brendan Rodgers, just like Callum McGregor back in 2016 when the Celtic manager arrived at the club first time around.