Lyon’s Moussa Move, Marseille’s Money’s short, Celtic’s price of Athens failure

THE news from France this morning is that Lyon are about to join Marseille in testing Celtic’s resolve to keep the French Under 21 striker Moussa Dembele in Glasgow.

Brendan Rodgers does not want to sell but if the bid meets the club’s valuation of the player then we all know what will happen next.

Marseille’s problem is finding the cash to fund the deal but that wouldn’t be an issue for Lyon, who last week beat Celtic to the signature of Belgian defender Jason Denayer.

Lyon are set to sell Mariano Diaz to Real Madrid in the next few days and are lining up Dembele as his replacement.

Marseille have been keen on the former Fulham striker – who Celtic signed for just £500,0000 – and have upped their interest in recent days after missing out on Mario Balotelli.

Dembele was brought to Celtic to develop, play in the Champions League and win medals before making his move to a bigger league. He in now in the second last year of his Celtic contract so to club either need to look at selling or offering the player a new deal – something that Celtic have been working on.

However if Lyon in particular are committed enough to test Celtic’s resolve with a £20million offer then there’s only one way that this is going to go.

Another worrying aspect is the suggestions in the press reporting that Dembele is keen on a move back to his homeland. We have no idea if this is true or not but do know that he has been keen on signing a new contract at Celtic for the last year or so but nothing concrete had happened with that.

Odsonne Edouard returned to training yesterday and could be ready for the first post window fixture – against the World Beaters on Sunday.

And Leigh Griffiths, who has been hampered by one niggling injury after another over the past year or so, has still to commit himself to the new Celtic deal that we were told was 85% agreed in May.

Last night AEK Athens secured their place in the Champions League, defeating the Hungarian side Vidi 3-2 on aggregate – see HERE.

Celtic missed out on a huge opportunity here and this has cost the Scottish Champions around £30million. A £20million bid for Dembele is therefore going to be difficult for Chief Executive Peter Lawwell to turn down – even if it leaves Brendan Rodgers short in the strikers’ department.

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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

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