Nevertheless, there was definitely some friction surrounding this move, with the City manager claiming that the Dutchman would be making a mistake to go north of the border and play in essentially a two-team league. At least if he went to the Premier League, there would be twice as many teams going for the title! Wales Online reports that Loovens couldn’t give a hoot about Jones’ opinion and is delighted to be in Glasgow.

“He (Jones) has his opinion, I have mine, and mine is the one that counts. I have to see it with my own eyes, but there are no easy games in this league.

“I wanted to play for things again and I cannot wait to get started.

“I knew I would have to take a step back to take a step forward.

“It was my choice, but I knew I could eventually get back up again and here I am now at a huge club like Celtic. They are in the Champions League and wanted to deal quickly.”

Cardiff fans, will Loovens be a big loss this season, or do you have enough strength in depth to cope with his departure?

Wales Online reports that Cardiff’s Glenn Loovens is the Scottish giant’s number one target, with an initial bid of around £2.5 million expected to be tabled. Quite whether this will be enough to wrest him from the grasp of Peter Ridsdale is another matter, although City are wary of the fact that they’ll lose the Dutchman for nowt when he’s out of contract at the end of the summer.

It will take straight cash for Rangers to land the Dutch defender and City chairman Peter Ridsdale insists the Bluebirds value Loovens at £3m-plus.

Loovens is still refusing to sign the new three-year contract offered by the Bluebirds and, if he maintains that stance, which he insists he will, then he could walk away for nothing at the end of this season.

City have offered to insert a get-out clause in any new deal, as they did with Michael Chopra and Aaron Ramsey in the past, but Loovens wants to keep his options open.

Cardiff fans, would the player’s departure be a massive blow to any promotion hopes this season? Or do you think that around £3 million could be used productively – after all, the club only paid £250,000 for him two seasons ago, so it would represent some great business.