BAT MAN AND THE MOUSSA RIDDLE
Chelsea’s £33m benched Belgian tells me Dembele should stay at Celts for another season but big question is will they be able to knock back a massive bid for their superhero?
MOUSSA DEMBELE is absolutely correct to be thinking of staying at Celtic at this moment.
The big question for me is at what point, or more to the point at what figure, would the club have to consider taking the decision out of his hands?
If the numbers get to the £34million Chelsea were reportedly willing to pay, it’s a tricky one for the hierarchy.
But Dembele would be better served staying at the club for at least another year and a half. If he needs an example, he need only look onto the bench at Stamford Bridge every week and see Michy Batshuayi.
Chelsea paid £33m for the Belgian last summer and he hasn’t started a single Premier League game.
At the age of 23, he doesn’t play. Batshuayi’s last three outings in the top-flight have been the final three minutes as sub against Hull, another three against Liverpool and another one solitary minute at Burnley last weekend.
Dembele would be the same. He is full of potential and the major European clubs are right to be keeping a close eye on his progress but he doesn’t have any more famous a countryman than Zinedine Zidane to take advice from and the Real Madrid manager’s assertion that the striker should stay in Scotland for at least a couple of years to keep developing is absolutely right. Zidane clearly knows he’s a talent but he’ll also know that Dembele isn’t ready to go into his line-up right now ahead of a Karim Benzema. Just as he wouldn’t get ahead of Robert Lewandowski at Bayern Munich, or Diego Costa at Chelsea, or Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Manchester United, or Olivier Giroud at Arsenal, or Sergio Aguero at Manchester City. I could go on, but you get the point.
Going to a major club for next season would see Dembele spend the majority of his time sitting on a subs bench like Batshuayi and that’s no good to him. So it’s great to hear that he’s got his mind fixed on seeing his four-year contract out.
That’s not going to happen but it’s a good thing that he is thinking along those lines.
It shows he is focused on his job and focused on his development. That’s refreshing to see in the current climate where many players jump at the first opportunity of a big move.
Dembele is having a brilliant season and he’s developing superbly under Brendan Rodgers.
You can see he’s got the lot as a player. He’s strong, quick and he can finish with head and feet. He scores tap-ins and showed with the France Under-21 side against England he scores from free-kicks.
Dembele is coming along at a terrific rate of knots but the player and his advisors will also be well aware that he is a long way from the finished article.
That’s not criticising, that’s just a fact. The lad is only 20 and still has things to improve upon, which is only natural at this stage of his career.
His link play could be better, his movement could improve and he needs to learn to go both ways in the box instead of always trying to shift things on to his right foot whenever possible.
But that’s just being ultra-picky and Dembele will get there with more experience. At Celtic, he’s in the perfect place with the perfect manager to keep progressing.
The game is fickle. Rodgers is right to say Dembele could easily increase in value if he keeps progressing.
With the silly money paid out in the transfer market these days for strikers, he could score four or five goals in a Celtic team which gets out of the group stage and into the last 16 of next season’s Champions League and his value could go up to about £50m.
But he could also lose form or, God forbid, pick up a bad injury. It’s not likely to happen but all I’m saying is it could.
And that’s why I believe Celtic have to carefully assess the position if a huge offer lands in the summer.