Celtic must not cut corners in effort to replace star player as speculation intensifies

Fri 29 December 2017 13:15, UK

COMMENT

There has been a lot of rumours surrounding Moussa Dembele’s future for months, as the player has constantly been linked with a move away from Celtic – however in the past week, speculation has really started to intensify.

The latest sides to be linked with the Frenchman are West Ham and Everton, with the Daily Mail claiming that Celtic have approached both teams to gauge their interest levels in the French Under-21 international, who the Hoops value at around £20million.

It seems highly likely that the player will be off to the English Premier League in January, and if this is the case then Brendan Rodgers should demand that a large amount of any fee received is spent on star player Dembele’s replacement.

The Hoops haven’t broken their transfer record since the signings of Chris Sutton and John Hartson in 2000 and 2001 respectively for £6million.

It would be a real statement of intent if around £8-10million was spent on a high-profile striker to be Dembele’s replacement.

It would show that the Scottish champions mean business in their goals to be competitive in the Champions League group stages, and that their intentions are to leave Scottish football in the dust.

The board at Celtic Park aren’t known for usually spending big money, preferring a policy of buying players cheap and selling them on for a huge profit, but this is the rare occasion when a replacement needs to be signed.