ODSARE£15M WILLBESHORT Harkes has high Hoops of fiancee’s full backing
the French striker’s departure this summer with the Foxes at the front of the queue. Arsenal, Aston Villa and Everton are keeping tabs, while Roma are among sides in the frame abroad.
Edouard is heading into the final year of his contract. Sources down south suggest Rodgers could grab a bargain for the hitman, who he bought from Paris St-Germain for a club-record £9m in 2018.
The Paris big guns are also due a sizable cut of the sell-on value but interim manager Kennedy reckons the £15m figure quoted is way off the mark.
He said: “That’s far too cheap for my liking. There comes a situation in terms of the remainder of a player’s contract and his motivation, plus doing the right thing for the club regarding selling players on at the right time.
“It happens every season. We sat here last year having conversations about Kristoffer Ajer when there were question marks about his future.
“It’s happened to a number of others as well.
“That comes around every time the transfer window is about to reopen. It’s just about doing what’s best for the club, first and foremost, and then the player, so we’ll see what happens with that.
“The financial perspective of this club is strong and there are some very clever people here who know how the business side of football works inside out.
“We’ve put ourselves in a position where we can demand transfer fees.”
Kennedy is adamant Celtic’s track record for developing talent will allow them to set a higher tariff for their star man.
Virgil van Dijk, Moussa Dembele and Kieran Tierney moved for big money while youngster Jeremie Frimpong headed to Bayer Leverkusen in January for £11.5m.
The interim boss said: “Obviously that’s down to what we’ve done in terms of either bringing players to the club or bringing them through.
“And, as you’ll have noticed, transfer fees have increased.
“The more you’re able to develop good players and then watch them succeed elsewhere, the more you can ask for because other clubs realise they’ll be getting a good product when they buy from us.
“You look at Virgil van Dijk. When we sold him to Southampton for £13m it was a big fee – but what could he go for now?
“There have been others we’ve sold since then who have also done well.
“People know what they’re getting when they buy from us and that’s good when others decide they want to take a chance on one of our guys.
“That’s why we get good money for them and why clubs come straight to us now, rather than waiting to see how a player might do once we’ve sold him to Southampton or whoever.
“They’re coming to the party much earlier and we’re now at the level where we don’t have to sell cheaply.”
The 23-year-old has returned to form after a start to the season that was derailed by transfer speculation and then contracting Covid.
Edouard has still blasted 21 goals this term and was yesterday named Player of the Month for February.
Kennedy is convinced the frontman can keep his focus for the remainder of the season.
He said: “It’s terrific that Odsonne has been named Player of the Month. That gives him that little bit of extra confidence.
“His performances have been far more consistent.”
IAN HARKES hopes his footballer fiancee can put club loyalties to one side and throw her support behind him against Celtic at Tannadice tomorrow.
The Dundee United midfielder, who joined the Tangerines from DC United two years ago, is engaged to fellow American Sarah Teegarden.
The 25-year-old plays for Celtic in SWPL1 but has spent the last few months battling back to fitness after a cruciate injury.
Harkes said: “It’s great having a fellow footballer as a partner. We share a lot and can talk through things, help each other out and support each other through our careers.
“We know what the other is going through. It’s fantastic she’s a player.
“It’s been tough for her with the women’s game suspended for so long.
“I’ve had to be supportive and she’s also just coming back from a long time out with an ACL injury.
“It’s tough for her when we play Celtic but I like to think she’ll support me.”
The last time United played Celtic at Tannadice in August, they ran the Hoops close before losing to a late Albian Ajeti goal.
Harkes is looking for a different result tomorrow and added: “We have to respect this Celtic team because based on the table they’re still the secondbest team in the country.
“But we’ve also seen how teams have turned them over this year and got positive results.
“We’re hoping to do the same and be one of those teams. It’s going to be a big test. We need six points from our next two games to try to jump into the
top six.”