French fake news, click bait Colin Nish, those two Belgian Bhoys

CELTIC will NOT sell French midfielder Olivier Ntcham to West Ham or anyone else this summer. West Ham, who previously did NOT bid for Moussa Dembele – and at one stage we all got sick reading about that – have NOT bid for Ntcham.

It’s all a complete non story, as was their supposed interest in Dembele.

The English transfer window closes in a couple of weeks – the sooner the better!

The biggest threat to losing a player Brendan wants to keep remains Dedryck Boyata, who apparently in NOT signing for Lyon – that from an umimpressive source in the online French media who couldn’t even spell the Belgium’s name properly.

It was probably them that said he was a target for Lyon too.

But there has been interest in Boyata and while he said pre-World Cup that he was looking to re-sign for Celtic, a lot has happened since then and at 27 he is about to sign the most important contract of his career.

He would make more money in England – as a club like Fulham for instance – but he can forget all about playing in the Champions League and winning honours. Celtic gave him the platform that propelled him all the way to the World Cup, but maybe more money is more important.

We’ll find out soon enough.

He only needs to look at the example of Jason Denayer – who yesterday was the subject of the usual transfer window link with a move back to Glasgow. Denayer looked a brilliant prospect at Celtic playing alongside Virgil van Dijk but he has not kicked on from there and after a woeful showing at the Euros he dropped out of the picture for the Belgium national side, effectively being replace by Boyata.

Celtic tried on several occasions previously to bring him back to Celtic – the closest they got was at the start of Ronny’s last season as boss when we lost to Malmo in the Champions League Play-off. Manchester City had agreed to Denayer’s return to Celtic – provided we qualified, so that he would get the chance to play on the Champions League that season.

Are Celtic back in for the player again? Who knows but if it was a choice between him and Boyata, pretty sure that Brendan would choose his own player just as Roberto Martinez did for the World Cup.

Meanwhile as we reported yesterday, Jozo Simunovic has had his ban extended to two matches by UEFA, although Celtic are considering an appeal.

He will serve the second match ban away to Rosenborg on Wednesday evening and will be free for the games against AEK Athens should we avoid disaster in Norway.

Surely an appeal risks losing him for the games against the Greek champions?

About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor, who has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

Comments are closed.