Livingston manager Davie Martindale insists Joel Nouble is one of the best attacking players in the Premiership and claims clubs would be ‘foolish’ not to look at the forward during the January transfer window.
Taking Celtic out of the equation, Martindale has also claimed that the 26-year-old is good enough to walk into every other team in the Premiership.
Nouble has been sidelined since the resumption of the league with a knee injury but could feature in Monday’s visit of Motherwell if the feedback from a MRI scan is positive.
With the January transfer window about to open tomorrow, Martindale is also bracing himself for interest in Nouble following an impressive start to the season.
Martindale, who could hand Steven Bradley his debut against the Steelmen after recently signing the winger from Hibs, said: “You can see he is a huge player for us and I think he is one of the best offensive players in the Premiership, to be honest.
“I think he walks into any team in Scotland outwith Celtic, because they are well covered for nines and wide areas. They have some fantastic players.
“But any other team in Scotland, and I know he could do a job in the Championship down south. So I’d be surprised if there is not that level of opponent looking at him.
“I think it would be foolish of teams if they are not looking at Joel.
“If I am that, I am probably trying to pick him up as early as possible.
"I don’t really see January as a selling market. The summer is more of a selling market, unless you are going into the last six months of a contract and you are going to look at that in January. And Joel is not.
"But I’d be surprised if my phone doesn’t ring. I’ve had a couple of conversations with different people, but nothing I could term as an offer.
“There are bits and bobs sniffing about, but, as I said, teams would be foolish not to look at Joel.”
Nouble went for a scan on Thursday evening in a bid to get clarity on the extent of the issue with his knee but Martindale is hoping the problem will not rule the forward out long-term.
Martindale, who will be without midfielder Jason Holt on Monday after losing his red card appeal, added: “I don’t see it being anything serious. It’s one of those knocks we have really struggled to shake off.
“Joel has come into first-team training a couple of times, but not felt great and couldn’t really run it off.
“It’s a bit of swelling behind the knee.
“If the scan says that, it’s a bit of swelling but by training and playing it is not going to make it any worse, we’ll manage through.
“The surgeon who is dealing with the MRI result will give us some feed back on what we should do.”
