Celtic should make it a priority to get Patrick Roberts back to Glasgow in time for the Astana tie. I was with Roberts and Man City in Houston three weeks ago when he started against Manchester United, and he looked good.

While he impressed that day, he’s not quite good enough to play for Manchester City every week, but that’s no disrespect to him. You are talking about a very, very high level of football there.

With Roberts, you are getting a player who knows the set-up, knows the style of play and knows what is required. It would also be a big boost for the club before the game.

Read more: Talks regarding Patrick Roberts' future must remain private, says Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers

He’s somebody who can play wide or can play through the middle, although I think he is best wide, and Celtic should be pulling out all the stops to get him in the door and make it happen. I think there’s a good chance that it will.

Even if Roberts does arrive at Celtic Park though, it certainly won’t be easy for the Scottish champions to get past Astana, the champions of Kazakhstan.

Celtic beat them in Champions League qualifying last year, but anybody who was at Celtic Park for the decisive second leg, or who watched the first leg in Astana, will concur that it could have easily gone the other way. It was not plain sailing at all, and I don’t think it will be this time either.

There’s a lot of money in football in Kazakhstan, and Astana are the richest club in the country. They are actually heavily bankrolled by the government’s sovereign wealth fund. Wouldn’t that be nice for our clubs?

I think this tie will be very similar to last year’s against Hapoel Be’er Sheva. I would make Celtic slight favourites, but I think it will be really important to take a lead to Astana. Failure to do that would tip the scales in Astana’s favour.

Read more: Talks regarding Patrick Roberts' future must remain private, says Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers

Going to Norway, just a short trip across the North Sea, is one thing. Going 10 hours deep into Asia is quite another.

Most Celtic fans won’t know the individual players, even though they saw them last season. Patrick Twumasi is still there, the Ghanaian striker. He’s moving towards his peak years at 23, and will be a danger.

The player I really like, and who I have seen a lot of, is a Hungarian called Laszlo Kleinheisler, an internationalist who is on loan from Werder Bremen. He’s a really good box-to-box, all-round midfielder. He gets into good positions and can score goals, although he hasn’t really shown that too much in Germany with Werder Bremen or on loan at Darmstadt last season.

But he’s a good player, and he was at the Euros with Hungary in 2016. Due to his red hair, his nickname has always been ‘Scholes’, and his style of play is not all that dissimilar to Paul Scholes as well.

When Celtic do their homework, they will identify him as someone who can really do damage.