TALKING CELTIC DAVIE HAY
Park. I saw the reaction from Leigh Griffiths when he scored up at Dens Park on Boxing Day and I get the argument that if you score and the manager tells everyone you played well that you can expect to be in the starting line-up for the next game.
But football doesn’t always work like that and Dembele for me j ust has the edge on Griffiths.
As I have said before, the way Griffiths improved his allround play last year definitely made the margins between them that bit finer but I would still go with Dembele against Rangers because he has that big-game temperament.
He has been unfortunate with injuries between the end of last season and the beginning of this which have inevitably had an effect on his impact on the team but he remains for me one of the real up and coming players of his generation.
I also think it underpins the importance of a strong pre-season.
I think not being fully fit and missing games at the start of the season means you are always playing catch-up in terms of getting up to speed with everyone else. But he remains for me a young player with the ability to go on and play at the very top level.
Which takes me back to my original point – Celtic should not allow him to head off to England for the likes of the £18m that was quoted this week.
Celtic insisted that was rubbish and you can see why. Whether the player believes Brighton would be the right step for him to take is between him and his advisors but what you have to remember is the financial muscle these clubs have. If they can table the right kind of money then who is to say what happens next.
THE one thing that you would say about Dembele is that he has never agitated for a move. He has never sulked about a move – and there is some suggestion he could have forced a move to Chelsea in the final days of last year’s window – but he has been content to go along with his own plan.