Manchester City would have rejected £30m for Roberts, says Celtic boss

Brendan Rodgers has revealed Celtic were willing to shatter their club transfer record to land Patrick Roberts during the summer but Manchester City would not even have sold him for £30m.

Roberts has spent the last 18 months on loan at Celtic and will continue with the Scottish giants for the remainder of this season after Rodgers was forced to accept City were not interested in a permanent deal.

The 20-year-old has only made a handful of appearances for City since joining from Fulham in 2015, but is widely regarded as one of the most exciting young English talents.

Rodgers’ side have never spent more than £10m on a single player but the former Liverpool manager has revealed the club were prepared to break the bank for the youngster.

“We would have broken our transfer record for Patrick,” Goal quote Rodgers as saying at a charity event in Belfast. “We wanted to find the deal that would get him back here. But he’s a Manchester City player.

“We could have offered them £30m and they would have said no. They didn’t want to sell. So the best option was to get him back on loan.”

Roberts had scored 15 goals in 43 appearances for Celtic in all competitions.