Brendanrightnotto raise to King’s bait

one for Leigh to take if he was dropped again as soon as Dembele is 100 per cent fit and available again.

Then again, Dembele is such an impressive talent, and he is a big-game player.

He showed that last year, and he has proven that he can produce on the European stage.

He scored twice against Manchester City as well as coolly netting a penalty away to Borussia Moenchengladbach, and generally performed to a high level in the best company.

It’s not easy to leave a player who can give you what Dembele can on the bench, no matter how well Griffiths is currently doing.

I’m glad that it’s not me that has to make the choice, but whatever Brendan Rodgers decides to do, Celtic will have a high-level operator up top. It’s a nice problem to have. I AM reluctant to respond to the comments from Dave King regarding Celtic and the legitimacy of the six titles they have won in succession,because they are so ludicrous they scarcely deserve any time.

But what I would say is that these soundbites that King likes to pop up with now and again will surely fall on deaf ears around Celtic Park.

The sort of views he likes to put forth seem designed solely to appease the Rangers supporters, and I’m sure that even a good few of them aren’t sucked in by it.

But what I would say from a Celtic perspective is that it’s no surprise to me that Brendan Rodgers hasn’t issued any real response to it.

Frankly, Celtic as a club are miles above that sort of tit-for-tat between them and any other club in Scotland at the minute. I’m sure that Rangers, and Dave King in particular, would love a war of words to try and destabilise Celtic, but if he thinks that he will achieve it, then he is obviously ignorant of the way that Celtic are run as a club these days.

There is absolutely no way that Rodgers would allow the words of King to affect his team in any way.

Right now, both he and his players will be fully focused on their preparations for the Champions League qualifiers, because they know how important it is to the club.

The path to the riches and the glamour of the group stages is an absolutely key stage in Celtic’s season, and all of their energies will be directed towards making sure they once again grace the biggest stage in European football.

When it comes to King’s comments, frankly, Celtic have got much bigger fish to fry.