Oliver Birch 
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Celtic should reconsider their summer transfer plans for Boli Bolingoli after Alan Hutton became the latest pundit to lavish praise on him.
Speaking to Football Insider about Celtic’s plans to offload the left-back, the former Scotland international believes Boli was proving to be an “asset” for the Hoops following a £3 million move last summer before injury slowed his progress down.
He started off a little bit slow at the beginning, I wasn’t too sure but then he came onto a real game and he played really well. Athletic, strong, getting up and down the pitch – he was looking a real asset.
Unfortunately, he got injured and things didn’t really go his way at the back end of the season. They’ve got a lot of competition. Celtic have got a lot of strength in depth and whether Neil Lennon’s looking at other options or whether he’s looking to trim the squad, just like all teams do at this time of the year.
I do believe he’s a good player but maybe they’re looking to trim the squad a little.
Hutton has joined in with the praise for Boli after former Kilmarnock defender Alex Bruce also hailed his ability last month.
And the comments from both Hutton and Bruce suggest Celtic need to re-think their plans of cashing in on the left-back this summer.
Although he has lost his spot in the side to Greg Taylor since the turn of the year, he is clearly a talented player to have retained his place in the starting line-up on a regular basis during the first half of the campaign.
Furthermore, he showed enough promise during his run in the side to impress the aforementioned duo, and a surprising statistic backs up how much he does contribute to the side when he plays. Celtic uploaded a graphic showing who the players with the highest number of key passes in the league were last month, and Boli was tied for fourth place with Odsonne Edouard.
That’s an even more impressive stat when you consider how Eddy and the three players with a higher number had all made at least 10 more appearances than the left back.
With that in mind, Celtic may want to reconsider their plans to offload Boli this summer, as there is clearly a talented and useful player there, perhaps he just needs a bit more time to settle.
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