Brendan Rodgers believes that Olivier Ntcham has the necessary credentials to play at the very top level.

The 21-year-old former Manchester City player has looked at ease at the heart of the Celtic midfield since arriving this summer.

The fee for Ntcham of just over £4.5m was Celtic's most expensive outlay for a decade but so far it looks to have been money well spent.

“He’s 21 years of age and he’s fantastic," said Rodgers. "He’s one that I felt in the cycle of coming to here, he wanted to develop and he wanted to play. He needs to play in a certain way.

“He’s a real player.

“You can see his physicality. If he turned up playing for Barcelona or Bayern Munich or Real Madrid you wouldn’t blink. You just say ‘what a good player he is.’

“He’s in a Celtic shirt and he’ll develop and grow here into a top class player.

“Thankfully the supporters here will get the chance to see him develop over the next two or three years."

Rodgers has a reputation for developing young players, while Celtic too have established a blueprint of identifying young, talent, giving them a platform and then facilitating a move elsewhere further down the line.

Patrick Roberts dug his heels in for a return to Celtic because he wanted to work with Rodgers again, while Moussa Dembele has also saw his reputation gain during his inaugural campaign at the club last season.

Dembele and Ntcham are close friends off the park having known one another since boyhood but it is the hunger for development that Rodgers sensed in Ntcham.

"Moussa knows him well and seeing his progress this season, and profile rise, could’ve had a big influence too," said the Celtic manager.

“When I spoke to Olly and his brother and representatives, well they were keen on development.

“They were willing to invest time regards him improving. They didn’t see him as the finished article, but they needed to go with his coach and get the chance to perform under pressure.

“So the environment was vital for him and one of the big reasons he’s come to here, to develop and get better and then see where his career takes him.”

Meanwhile, Rodgers has also insisted that Celtic will not take their foot off the pedal ahead of next week's game against Astana.

The Hoops lead 5-0 after the opening leg of their conclusive play-off tie and it would be forgiven if they were already planning their Champions League group campaign.

Rodgers, though, whose reputation for ruthlessness was embodied in the manner in which Celtic claimed an unbeaten Treble last season, has revealed that he will instil a mentality in his players that the game is still poised at 0-0.

“The full squad will travel, we will go out there to get a result," he said. "We want to win the game out there, be aggressive. For me, the tie is 0-0 and we want to get a result. We won’t be holding back."

Stuart Armstrong finally signed an extension to his contract yesterday with Celtic that will keep at the club until 2019, putting an end of months of wrangling over the situation.

There was a feeling that the length of time on the contract perhaps wasn't best suited to Celtic given that they will be in the same position a year down the line, but Rodgers has maintained that this was the most agreeable solution.

Yes, it is win, win," he said. "Every negotiation whether it is one year, five years or two, every party has to be happy. This is one where he has extended his time here. It is two years and everyone is happy. I signed a one year when I came in. The club was happy and I was happy, that is where it is at.

“Every player wants to play and perform at the highest possible level. “I totally understand that and I have been at that level. “I can understand why people would want to go to the most competitive league in the world. “It is always about timing and I felt with Stuart this wasn’t the time.

“When that is going to be that is undecided, if it ever does happen. While he is here he is at a huge club and he has everything that goes with being a Celtic player. “The one thing you know is that if you come out of here you can deal with pressure. “We have seen players in the past, looking at it from afar, leaving here and have gone to clubs that are nowhere near this size. “As I have said before, it is about game time and money. “It is hard to deny someone when they can go and earn three or four times the money.

“It is hard to say it because you have 60,000 supporters, Champions League and blah, blah , blah but when you are 60 that is not going to buy you a loaf of bread or your milk."