HITMAN’S WORTH HIS WAIT IN GOLD
the same company as Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Greizmann at international level his value soars.
Year-on-year, the monster that is the Champions League just seems to get fatter and more bloated.
Cash injections into this season’s competition could see Celtic make £40m from reaching the group stage.
It’s an eye-watering sum of money and has to be absolutely pivotal in the decisions being made inside the boardroom at Parkhead right now.
Qualification through four rounds will be tough. Celtic’s wage structure needs the groups to prevent them taking a hit and taking money now for Dembele would offer some sort of insurance policy against failure.
Yet the Hoops are always saying they don’t need to sell. If Dembele is happy to stay and doesn’t receive an attractive offer, Celtic have a chance to keep him to get through to the group stage and land the double jackpot in the future.
Peter Lawwell drives a hard bargain. Whatever people’s opinion of the chief executive, he gets good deals for Celtic.
Look at John McGinn. Given what the club made from Southampton for Stuart Armstrong – when he was worth very little before Brendan Rodgers walked into the club – I feel they should pay the Hibs valuation.
Rodgers needs things done quickly and he won’t want this to drag on. Sometimes you need to pay a little over to get what you want in football. It happens all of the time.
Celtic and Hibs are playing poker, but it won’t do their managers any good. Neil Lennon has a distracted player with no finances to replace him as yet and Rodgers is in limbo.
Dembele’s situation is different. Like Kieran Tierney, Celtic would find it tough to knock back a big fee, especially if the players can earn about five times their salary. Of course they’ll want to go.
But right now, Dembele is potentially holding a couple of mammoth cheques in his hands made out to Celtic PLC.
If the Hoops can hold him for six more months he might just sign them off for an incredible pay-out.