AT the start of a Nou beginning, Philippe Coutinho contacted an old friend.

The Brazilian had just touched down in Barcelona before being whisked to the Camp Nou as he was set to put pen to paper on a £142m move that would make his dream come true. A landmark moment for the player who has yearned to spread his wings from the Liverpool base he called for the last five years.

However, as he looked to a bright – and wealthy – future as the home of the Catalan giants came into view, there was still a moment for reflection as he glanced gratefully into the past.

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“He sent me a nice text the other day when he was arriving in Barcelona,” said Brendan Rodgers, the man who brought him to Merseyside from Inter Milan in 2012 for £8.5m. “He is a great young guy, he was never a moment’s problem for me. He was a magical player to work with.

“It’s brilliant for both really. He is a Barcelona player if ever there was one. At the time when I brought him he wasn’t in the team at Inter Milan. He was a young player and they needed to sell one or two players to get some money into Inter Milan at the time. So he wasn’t playing.

“I think people questioned when I brought him in whether he was big enough and tall enough. Was he maybe not as physical as the Premier League could be. But I’d seen him as a young player, saw him at Inter Milan at 18 around top players and I always felt he had the technical quality. And of course he was always going to get better physically.

“He is a wonderful example. Of course it is difficult for players. It is hard if there is a move to a club, especially a move to a club that maybe he had wanted to go to. Clearly Liverpool rightly stood their ground until they got the fee they wanted. As soon as the window shut he got on with his work. He has been a great player for Liverpool in his time there and he is in the middle of his asset age, he’s 25 years of age, so he’s going to light it up there for the next eight, nine, ten years. A brilliant, brilliant player and a really, really humble boy who works really hard and never forgets his roots.”

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Rodgers may no longer have the resources he once did to spend so much unearthing a rough diamond buried on the Inter Milan bench, but the Celtic manager remains motivated by the prospect of bringing on young talent. It’s an investment in time, resource and work, not just money.

The most obvious candidate for that project now falls to Lewis Morgan, the St Mirren starlet who has blazed a meteoric trail all the way from obscurity at Paisley to becoming one of the most fancied young players in Scotland. And it’s easy to see why with 13 goals already this season including three in his last three games with the spotlight on him.

“That is the pride that is always in it for me,” said Rodgers. “I’ve said before that for me it’s not about what’s on my CV. I see the joy in seeing the likes of [Coutinho] get his move and Raheem Sterling improve from being an 18 year old kid and leaving for £49 million. And other players that I’ve worked with.

“You feel you have played a little part in helping them achieve what is a dream for them.”

The Celtic manager explains the interest in Morgan can be traced all the way back to a Scottish Cup tie back in March last year. The 21-year-old was a standout on that day at Celtic Park as St Mirren turned in a performance that earned them the tag of the best side Celtic had played that season according to Rodgers.

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“He was a boy that really took my eye when we played St Mirren,” he said. “Even though we won the game 4-1 I liked how direct he was and his quality. He was a handful on the day. We kept an eye on him from then. We watched him for Scotland under-21s against Holland and he was up against a really physical player that night and it was interesting to see if he could cope with that and he did. He’s a boy that is hungry.

“He has gone there with Jack [Ross, the St Mirren manager] and done very, very well. I spoke to Jack at length about him. And then I was given permission to speak to the player at length. He is a very humble boy, he knows where he’s at in his career.

“It is hard to tell, when they come to a big club. You come to Celtic and it’s hard for lots of players so if he can cope with that level of scrutiny and pressure and expectations then he could be a wonderful player. He has the talent, he’s direct, he’s quick, he can score goals, he has two great feet, so yeah, we will look forward to the chance to work with him when he comes in the summer.”

Morgan will stay at loan at St Mirren until the end of the season where he hopes to win a Championship medal with the Paisley club. Despite the delayed start to his Celtic career, Rodgers explained he was impressed by what the young forward had to say for himself.

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“You look at the player and you do your homework on him and you try to find out all the different aspects of his life. I like players that are hungry and coachable and want to learn,” he said.

“I like players that are hungry, coachable and want to learn. I tend to bring the right types of character into the squad. Everything I had heard about him was very good as a boy.

“Sometimes those boys are silver medallists. They come through and we’ve seen it in many examples. But yeah I had a real nice chat with him. He’s a good boy and had the hunger. You can’t always go on what they’re like, but obviously the first impression is important."