Ollie Watkins has signed for Aston Villa from Brentford for a whopping £33m. [DailyMail]

What does that have to do with Celtic? Not a lot on the face of it, but there’s something deeper at play here and I hope someone is paying attention within the corridors of Celtic Park.

Watkins signed for Brentford from Exeter for just over £1m three years ago and now his steep rise in valuation should be used as a template by Celtic and as an example to anyone who believes they can grab Odsonne Edouard for under £30m.

We don’t want to see Edouard sold this summer but any club that has a desire to take the Frenchman from the club better have big pockets.

Watkins has scored 45 Championship goals in 132 appearances; 26 of those goals were scored last season, giving way to major Premier League interest. The astounding amount he’s gone for dwarves what we got for Moussa Dembele two years ago and he’s certainly a better bet than Watkins.

I’ve been told in the past it’s unrealistic to expect these figures for an SPFL player, why? Odsonne has proven himself to be a hot commodity, there are strikers who play in the Scottish Premier Football League who can’t cut it but manage to carve themselves out a path in the Championship; Teemu Pukki and Daryl Murphy being two examples. Edouard can be world class and could cut it just about anywhere.

There are top clubs interested in Eddy and Celtic must be firm on a price. After all we have a sell-on clause attached with PSG and we already spent £9m to get him here. It’s imperative we make clubs pay top dollar.