CELTIC assistant manager John Kennedy says the club won’t be losing any sleep over missing out on David Turnbull, as the Motherwell youngster closes in on a move to Norwich City.

The Scottish champions bowed out of the race to sign Turnbull on Tuesday, with the winners of last season’s English Championship having a £3.25m bid accepted shortly afterwards.

But while Kennedy admits it was a disappointment to lose out on a player he rates highly, he says that he only wants players coming to the club who show the desire to come to Celtic to win trophies, and says the club have a list of signing targets that they have already moved onto.

Kennedy said: “What we want is for players to be hungry and we also want them to come here for the right reasons, not just financially, and for a 19-year-old with less than a full season for Motherwell under his belt, the offer we made was very good.

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“The reality is that if players come here and do well then they’ll be amply rewarded as the years progress. That’s the way we saw it, and we gave David the spiel about how we work here and how we nurture players and where they go from here.

“If you do well at Celtic then the world is your oyster and that’s what we wanted to give him, but they chose not to take it.”

Kennedy doesn’t think however that Celtic are less of a draw for young Scottish players than they once were.

“It depends on their motive; what are they looking to get out of it?” he said. “Is it purely money or do they want to go somewhere where they have a real chance of winning trophies and becoming a better footballer, because I’ve seen many players jump ship and fall by the wayside because they’re not getting a game.

“Obviously, I certainly hope that doesn’t happen to David because he’s someone we rate very highly, but it’s all about making the right move for your career. But that all comes down to what the players wants and what advice he’s getting from his representative.

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“But it’s not something we’re going to lose any sleep over it and the process of moving on to the next target has already begun.”

Meanwhile, Kennedy says that speculation linking Kieran Tierney - currently working his way back to fitness after hip surgery - with a move to Arsenal isn’t a concern to the club, or the player.

“It has been the same for the last four windows, hasn’t it?” he said. “We don’t look into it too much.

“The positive is when players are being speculated about moving to bigger leagues it means obviously we have good players. We expect it every window.

“Kieran is cool. He’s a good type. He doesn’t let it affect him in any way and he is working hard behind the scenes.”