The latest news and gossip from around Scottish football.

McCarthy shares Celtic love

Crystal Palace midfielder James McCarthy has confessed his love for Celtic and revealed he hopes to play in an Old Firm clash before he retires.

The former Hamilton and Wigan star grew up a Hoops fan and, despite leaving Scotland for down south, he still harbours ambitions to play in the big game.

He told Crystal Palace’s match programme: “I’ve always been a Celtic fan; all my family are Celtic fans.

“From when I was born, I’ve had the Celtic strips.

“Obviously as a kid, you’re always watching. We’d go and watch the games. My brothers used to take me.

“I went to quite a lot of them [Old Firm Derbies]. I was younger, maybe eight or nine.

“I’d always be at the game. It’s an amazing atmosphere, an incredible atmosphere and one that you really enjoy.

“You always find you want to play in something like that.”

Edouard can be next Lukaku

Celtic’s Boli Bolingoli has tipped teammate Odsonne Edouard for the top - insisting he can be as good as cousin Romelu Lukaku.

The young French forward notched a double on Saturday to take his tally for the season to 11 goals, and has also set the heather alight in his short career at international under-21 level with nine goals in four games.

For sure he can go to the level of Romelu,” Bolingoli said. 

“Odsonne is still young and is still progressing but in time, for me, he can become a big striker in the football world.

“The boy has qualities and we have so many qualities in the team to help him. You see how good he is every day. Even with the national team.”

Gerrard not happy

Steven Gerrard has blasted his players’ mentality after they failed to break down Hearts in a 1-1 draw.

Ryo Meshino opened the scoring for the hosts at Tynecastle yesterday before Alfredo Morelos levelled.

But the Rangers manager was disappointed that his stars didn’t do enough to win.

He said: “I don’t think we performed well enough to win the game, that’s for sure.

“I certainly see it as two points dropped right now. We didn’t start the game well enough. I thought we were poor in the early exchanges and were lucky not to be 2-0 down.

“It’s about mentality,” he added. 

“It’s that realisation of the opportunity you’ve got to win a football match. With all respect to Hearts, we should be fired up more than that, we should be ready to compete, coming out of the blocks more focused than that.”

Olivier Ntcham update

Neil Lennon expects French midfielder Olivier Ntcham to be fit for Thursday evening’s clash with Lazio.

The powerhouse missed Saturday’s 6-0 win over Ross County after rolling his ankle in training a day earlier.

But Lennon says Ntcham should be ready for the Serie A side’s visit to Glasgow on Europa League duty.