PLZ Soccer’s Peter Martin took to Twitter earlier this week and blasted Celtic fans for having short memories when it comes to Brendan Rodgers. During his rant, he spoke of player revolts and I had no idea what he was referring to. Seemingly, I was one of the Celtic fans with a short memory, as someone pointed out that it was a reference to the Moussa Dembele situation and then Dedryk Boyata refusing to play in a crucial Champions League qualifier against AEK Athens. How could I forget?
Some people have short memories. Player revolt, tedious football, European humiliation and a man declaring his love while working his ticket out of the club. #historylesson pic.twitter.com/sO62I7pKwr
— Peter Martin (@PeterMsport) June 12, 2023
Moussa Dembele was an excellent footballer for Celtic, who became the first player to score a hat-trick for the club against theRangers, and the first to do so in a Glasgow derby since Harry Hood achieved the feat several decades ago. Crucially, he scored goals at Champions League level against Man City, PSG and Gladbach too. The Frenchman maintains an affection for the club and seemed to enjoy working under Rodgers, that was until the final day of the transfer window in August 2018.
Dembele had been linked with a summer move to Brighton, which didn’t happen, and the club then turned down a significant offer from Lyon. The striker was furious about this and found himself left out of Celtic’s Europa League squad that week.
After the game Rodgers said: “We don’t want him to go. We understand where it is at and we understand the offer is significant but it is not good for us. You know, it has to work for both.
“For Celtic, if we don’t have someone of a certain calibre and quality to come in, then unfortunately it can’t be done because he is not a player that we want to lose so we will see how that goes over the next 24 hours.”
Eventually, Dembele’s anger and rumoured refusal to play for the club led to the sale being forced through on the final day of the window.
Fans were angry at the French superstar’s behaviour, but he clearly laid the blame at Brendan Rodgers’ door by posting the following tweet on social media.
Don’t get it wrong Bhoys and Ghirls nothing to do with people who really care about the club @CelticFC 🤐too much love and respect for you and the crest #CarefulWhoYouCallTheLeaderOfYours pic.twitter.com/3FR1YoJLHr
— Moussa Dembélé (@MDembele_10) August 31, 2018
Who knows if certain promises had been made to the player behind the scenes, but Dembele also posted “A man without his word is nothing. A real man keeps his word.”
The whole Dembele saga came just a couple of weeks after Boyata allegedly refused to play in a crucial Champions League qualifier against AEK Athens. When Celtic rejected a bid from Fulham for the defender, he claimed he was injured for some matches. Something which Rodgers disputed.
I remember being in Athens for the match and being furious that while hundreds of us paid a lot of money to back the team, one of our contracted players couldn’t be bothered to turn up because he didn’t get a move he wanted to England. That was in line with what the press had reported, but the Belgian later posted footage of him receiving treatment on social media. So, once again, who knows the real truth?
It was certainly felt among the fans that Boyata was trying to force a move and was disrespecting the club. Indeed, the Green Brigade raised a banner ahead of the club’s match against Hamilton on 26 August 2018, which took aim at the player. It adopted a pun about his fitness ‘complaints’ and read: “Boyata not fit to wear the jersey”.
Ironically, Boyata returned to first team action that day and scored the only goal in the game!
Sannie McGuire – does anyone listen to him. Bright as a 1W bulb.