Alan Stubbs believes Kyogo Furuhashi is now worth £20million and he reckons Celtic will be holding out for a mega fee if they were to sell the striker.

The Japanese international is currently the top goal scorer in the country and he has been a huge player for Ange Postecoglou since he arrived at the club.

Kyogo's form will be grabbing the attention of potential transfer suitors, but former Celtic centre-half Stubbs reckons the financial well-being of the Hoops will help in their quest to keep their star man.

He told Grosvenor Sport: “The big thing for Celtic is the financial position they find themselves in. I think the playing field they are on now is different and improved to five years ago.

“Then they might have had to sell a player but now they don’t have to because the balance sheet is very healthy.

"And if they are tested over Kyogo then they are going to make sure that he will go for top dollar and let’s be honest he won’t go for anything less than £20million.

“I think Kyogo has been exciting since the day he arrived. I was interested to hear Ange’s comments that the team are not giving him the best service.

"He’s always making intelligent runs and he must be so difficult for defenders to deal with because his timing is so good. I think Ange is alluding to the fact that players are not reading his runs all the time and if they do he’s only going to score more goals.

"I can understand why fans are making comparisons with Henrik Larsson and if you’re getting mentioned in the same breath as him then you know he’s doing something very special."

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou countered claims that the standard of the Premiership should impact international selections after the level of the league was cited in Kyogo's recent Japan omission.

The frontman was again left out of the Japan squad for upcoming friendlies and head coach Hajime Moriyasu was quoted as saying he had taken the level of the league into account along with his desire to try out other players.

Celtic attacker Daizen Maeda has been selected for Japan’s games against Colombia and Uruguay after scoring in the World Cup finals but Furuhashi has been among the club’s star men in recent months.

Furuhashi has already scored 26 goals this season, and his teammate Reo Hattate was also left out.

When asked about the exclusions and whether Moriyasu’s comments were disrespectful, Postecoglou said: “Both boys are playing really well and it’s disappointing for them that they haven’t been selected, but that’s the nature of international football. It comes down to the national team manager’s decisions.

“In terms of disrespectful, it’s one person’s opinion. I’m not really sure we should make too many far-reaching conclusions.

“If you come here next week you’ll probably find that we don’t have many players training. The reason for that is they’re away at international football.

“We had five players at the World Cup who did okay, better than okay. We’ve had Josip Juranovic and Moritz Jenz leave our football club and are playing regularly in the Bundesliga, which is a top-five league.

“Now unless once they enter those clubs they magically become better footballers, I’d suggest the selection of individual footballers doesn’t come down to the level of the league.

“There have been plenty of players who have left this league and gone to the biggest leagues in the world and have performed really well and there are plenty of players in the Scottish Premiership who have done extremely well at international level, and plenty of players who have come from top-five leagues who have struggled in the Premiership.

“One man’s opinion doesn’t mean it’s wrong but doesn’t mean that’s the case either.”