Scottish Premiership champions Celtic are seemingly set to decide what to do with defender Stephen Welsh, with the academy graduate reportedly attracting interest from clubs across Europe.

What's the word?

According to the Scottish Daily Express, the Hoops will 'have a decision to make' regarding the centre-back's future at Parkhead, with clubs in England, Italy and France all said to be monitoring his situation at present.

The report adds that it is unclear as to whether Ange Postecoglou and co would sanction the 22-year-old's exit in the upcoming transfer window, although the youngster's lack of game-time is said to have 'alerted' potential interested parties.

This follows previous claims over the summer which suggested that the Old Firm giants had rebuffed an approach from Toulouse for the Scotland U21 international, having also reportedly rejected an offer from Serie A club Udinese last January.

Not up to scratch for Celtic

As mentioned, the £4.6k-per-week defender has found minutes hard to come by for Celtic so far this season, having made only six appearances in all competitions, including just four Premiership outings.

Even when he has featured, the 22-year-old has failed to impress, having notably been culpable during the Bhoys' only league defeat of the campaign so far away to St Mirren in September.

That outing saw Welsh dubbed "weak" by pundit Michael Stewart, while journalist Josh Bunting suggested that the 6 foot 3 defender had been simply "bullied" on the day, having looked "all over the place" alongside summer signing Moritz Jenz.

Such a limp outing has only served to corroborate claims from pundit Frank McAvennie, who suggested that Welsh needs a loan departure in order to "toughen him up", with the player still needing to "learn the basics".

The "fringe" asset - as also dubbed by McAvennie - is only set to see his game-time inhibited even further following the recent capture of Japanese defender Yuki Kobayashi, with that addition only likely to nudge Welsh further down the pecking order.

With the one-time Greenock Morton loanee having struggled to force his way into Postecoglou's side on a regular basis, it could be argued that he is simply just not good enough to be able to dislodge the likes of Cameron Carter-Vickers and Carl Starfelt from their starting berths.

As such, it may well be time to finally ditch the former Celtic youth star amid overseas interest in his signature, with Postecoglou needing to be ruthless in order to trigger Welsh's departure.