BRENDAN Rodgers demands the very best of his Celtic players on every occasion they take to the field in either domestic or European competition.

So it should be no great surprise that he is asking just as much of his new Head of Recruitment Lee Congerton as he looks to strengthen his squad this summer.

Rodgers has charged Congerton with identifying raw talents with the ability to become as exceptional as Philippe Coutinho, Neymar and Alexandre Pato in time. Yet, those were three of the players who his renowned talent spotter recommended he sign during his time as an academy coach at Chelsea – and he expects nothing less going forward.

The Scottish champions certainly have an impressive track record when it comes to unearthing hidden gems; Gary Hooper, Fraser Forster, Ki Sung-yueng, Virgil van Dijk and Victor Wanyama were all signed for nominal sums and sold on for multi-million pound profits.

But where will Congerton, a former talent spotter at Chelsea, Hamburg and Sunderland, look to unearth the new Moussa Dembele? What markets will he trawl to find the next bargain buy? How can he improve his team for minimal outlay?

Colin Chambers runs the International Professional Scouting Organisation along with former England internationalist Martin Dobson and Scotland striker Kevin Gallacher and trains scouts across Europe and in Asia.

Chambers stressed that Celtic will cast the net wide as they seek to improve on what has been, even by their high standards, an exceptional season and will scour the entire planet for potential signings.

“The world is a much smaller place with the advances which have been made in technology in recent years,” he said. “There are those rough diamonds all over the place, at every level, in every league in the world.

“When a chief scout receives a recommendation on a player he will then use technology to his advantage, specifically Scout8 and Wyscout. They can see videos of every player around the world. You won’t recruit a player on the strength of a video, that would be ludicrous, crazy. But if you are an experienced scout, you will get a feel for a player.”

Celtic have, despite their success in the transfer market over the years and their financial stability, no chance of competing with rival clubs in the big five leagues in Europe in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain due to their inferior income from broadcasting.

Chambers, however, believes the Parkhead club should still look at the top divisions on the continent to recruit players, either on loan or in permanent deals.

He said: “Scouts should be looking at top clubs and asking: ‘Why’s is that player not playing?’ Very often, it is because a new manager has come in and the players doesn’t suit his style of play. But he might still walk into your team because of the way that you play.

“There are bargains in every league in every country in the world.”