Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has hailed their capture of Chelsea midfielder Charly Musonda.

On the bench as his Chelsea team-mates defeated Newcastle on Sunday, the 21-year-old attacking midfielder flew to Glasgow on Monday to finalise an 18-month loan deal with the Scottish champions.

"He is a big talent," Rodgers said. "Subject to a medical, it is a great signing for us. He is a young guy who is in a Premier League squad and an exciting player.

"Charly had 24 clubs interested in taking him and some real prestigious clubs at that.

"We had permission from Chelsea last season for him to come here and speak to us and came up and he got a feel for it.

"The staff at Chelsea know how I work but it is a great coup for Celtic and for Scottish football that a young kid who was coming off the bench for Chelsea in the Premier League is up here a couple of weeks later. It is a big signing for us."

Explaining why he had to bide his time to land one of the most prodigious talents in Europe, Rodgers added: "Going back to last season, this was a player that we had ear-marked and there was a bit of speculation around him.

"Then of course he was involved in the squad. It might have happened earlier but Chelsea had one or two injuries and first and foremost they have to protect themselves.

"You see only yesterday he was on the bench so there has been an awful lot of work in it.

"My idea is to bring genuine quality into the team. I could have a whole list of players that I could bring here but it is the players who are going to make the difference that is important.

"This is a young player who is hungry now to play, who plays with great enjoyment in his game and he will feel that special connection now with the Celtic supporters and playing for this huge club."