Celtic tops Scottish league
CELTIC yesterday wrapped up the Scottish Premiership title in style.
Celtic’s season summed up in five points: France U21 international striker Moussa Dembele proved an inspired buy from Fulham, scoring more than 30 goals so far.
The 20-year-old’s startling success – he became the first Celtic player in 50 years to score a hattrick in an Old Firm league derby with bitter rivals Rangers – left last season’s leading scorer and player of the year Leigh Griffiths twiddling his thumbs. Dembele has inevitably attracted interest from the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal.
Manager Brendan Rodgers believes – at least publicly – that Dembele will stay on for another season. “I believed when Moussa came that he probably had a twoyear cycle,” said Rodgers.
“He needs another year of Champions League experience and the confidence of scoring goals and playing for such a big club, and probably then it’ll be time to fly.”
The Northern Irishman needed a pick-me-up after a bruising end to his spell at Liverpool.
Eyebrows were raised when he took the job at Celtic, but like Rafael Benitez at Newcastle, Rodgers was prepared to manage a historic club even if the quality of opposition wasn’t the best.
A humiliating Champions League qualifier first-leg defeat to Gibraltar part-timers the Lincoln Red Imps – Celtic went through after comfortably winning the second leg – suggested 44-year-old Rodgers’s career had taken a very wrong turning. But back in Scotland domestic bliss has proved him right.
Midfielder Scott Brown, 31, remains a talisman and is as tough as teak, while one of Rodgers’s former Swansea proteges, Scott Sinclair, provided the guile and creativity. Rodgers values Brown for his influence off the pitch too: “He’s a really important player for the spirit of the squad.”
Rangers’s return to the top tier sparked hope that the resumption of regular “Old Firm” derbies would revive Scottish football.
But a limited Rangers squad failed to land a blow in terms of a title challenge.
The ecstasy of the Rangers players in securing a 1-1 draw in their last Old Firm derby meeting said it all, though it was a marked improvement on the 5-1 hammering earlier in the season.
The messy departure of Mark Warburton reflected the malaise at Rangers as they struggle to even get second spot. For Celtic fans, though, it was a perfect storm. Apart from retaining Dembele’s services for another season, this is probably Rodgers’s greatest challenge. Celtic did at least reach the group stage of the Champions League but were largely outclassed, with the nadir a 7-0 humbling by Barcelona.
Rodgers says he is determined to turn Celtic into regulars in the knockout stages: “I think that was the aim for me to come here – it was to really build the club and for us to qualify for the Champions League and to get out of the group stages and see how far we can go there. We have to have that ambition.” — AFP