Celtic agree 18-month deal for Manchester City's Patrick Roberts
Sunday 31 January 2016 14:53, UK
Celtic and Manchester City have agreed an 18-month loan deal that will see Patrick Roberts join the Scottish Premiership champions.
The 18 year-old midfielder will finalise the move and undergo a medical over the weekend in Glasgow. He is expected to attend Sunday's League Cup semi-final against Ross County at Hampden Park.
Roberts joined City from Championship side Fulham last summer for a fee believed to be in the region of £12m, but has featured just once in the Premier League this season - a four-minute run-out in the 4-1 defeat at Tottenham in September.
The England U19 international has twice appeared in the Capital One Cup, coming on as a substitute in the victories over Sunderland and Crystal Palace.
City manager Manuel Pellegrini said on Friday plans to send Roberts out to gain experience would not be affected by the injury suffered by Kevin De Bruyne against Everton.
He said: "Patrick will go on loan to Celtic - the arrangements were made before this (De Bruyne injury) and we don't want to cut the option (for him) to play more games at Celtic. It will be a very important option for him.
"I am sure that Patrick Roberts will be a very important player here in the future but to play more games at Celtic will be better than to stay here and play just some."
Once Celtic complete the deal, he will become manager Ronny Deila's second signing of the January transfer window following the arrival of defender Erik Sviatchenko from Danish champions FC Midtjylland.
Roberts follows Jason Denayer and John Guidetti in becoming the latest City prospect to move to Parkhead, while Dedryck Boyata signed on a four-year-deal last summer.
