CELL-EBRATE MOUSSA’S 21ST

EXCLUSIVE EX-CELTIC KEEPER HOPES Dembele gets key to the door today and Hoops must use it to lock the French star into another season at Celts says Pat

CHARLIE NICHOLAS was 21 when he headed for the Parkhead exit – today Moussa Dembele gets the key of the door.

But while Celtic fans worry about the French starlet slamming it shut behind him this summer, Pat Bonner hopes Hoops chiefs can lock the frontman into another glory season in green and white.

Dembele will blow out the candles on his birthday milestone as a wanted man.

It’s 34 years since another Hoops striking sensation in Nicholas decided the grass was greener and left Glasgow’s East End for London and Arsenal.

Former Celts keeper Bonner believes that, at this definitive stage and age in their respective careers, Dembele is the most exciting 21-year-old to grace Paradise since his old team-mate.

However, the former keeper hopes the Frenchman doesn’t follow Nicholas’ lead and quit the club too soon.

Bonner said: “You can’t compare them as players. Charlie and Dembele are two different types.

“Charlie was an out and out goalscorer, but also a real creator. He created lots for Frank McGarvey and the two of them had a special relationship. He talks about his relationship with Danny McGrain. It was almost telepathic.

“He wasn’t blessed with sensational pace but his mind was just so quick and he had supreme confidence. It wasn’t just football. Charlie led things around Glasgow and people followed him.

“We were just the background players. He was the striker, he had the earring, the white shoes.

“He was the man and a Glasgow boy growing up next to Jim Duffy in Maryhill. All of that made Charlie unique.

“At that time he was sensational, not just as a scorer and that’s what brought the interest. It came from Liverpool and Arsenal, where he ended up.

“Charlie came through the system and he gave a lot of young players at Celtic the feeling at that time that they could come through it as well.

“He gave Celtic the ‘wow’ factor as a young player, which Dembele does now. Looking at the two of them, I’d say Dembele is more of a team player.

“By that, I mean he’s someone who doesn’t have the same flair as Charlie, but he’s a more a critical component of how the team works, in the way Brendan Rodgers wants to play. He gives Craig Gordon, for example, something to hit from goalkeeper.

“He’s crucial to the style of play, as well as having his own undoubted talents. I don’t think there has been anyone, from an age point of view, as good a striker as Dembele since Charlie.”

Dembele enjoyed an astonishing first season with the Scottish champions, bagging 32 goals including a hat-trick on his Old Firm debut.

Not only did he savour success at Parkhead with the winning of an unbeaten Treble, he also rocketed into the notebooks of scouts across the continent with his goals in the group stages of the Champions League.

In terms of his age group, Dembele smashed all manner of records.

He was top scorer for his club in those groups stages and also in the Scottish Cup and League Cup as well as the overall total.

Dembele was the youngest player in Europe to net over 30 goals in a season