Earlier on Wednesday, we covered claims from L’Equipe in France that Manchester United, Everton and West Ham were all interested in Celtic’s Moussa Dembele during the last transfer window.
The Red Devils held ‘discussions’ with Brendan Rodgers’ side over the summer, while the Toffees and the Hammers both made ‘concrete approaches’, which were kindly returned to sender by the Scottish Premiership club.
One of the reasons behind this is the striker wasn’t ready to leave Celtic, as revealed by one of his entourage to Le Parisien on Wednesday, who claims the plan was always for Dembele to spend two years at Celtic Park before moving on.
This suggests that, were certainly clubs to return with offers next year, the France U21 forward might be far more interested than he was a few months ago.
However, ‘he will only leave for a project that will be a real sign of progression’ from Celtic, meaning he’ll be aiming for the top half of the table rather than a smaller Premier League side.
As for how he’ll fare there, Patrick Gonfalone, his former manager at France’s youth level, doesn’t have any worries.
He said: “He’ll integrate in the Premier League without any problems. At 16, he did everything with great ease. He was a bit like Mbappé, just a bit less quick, and when he pushed himself, he was like George Weah.
“I often told him he wasn’t doing enough. Thankfully, England got him out of his comfort zone, and today he’s scoring 20 goals a season at 21.”
We’ll have to see next season then, but he won’t come cheap, that’s for sure.
