Rodgers: There were no promises made to Moussa
BRENDAN Rodgers yesterday said Moussa Dembele had conceded the Celtic manager had not made promises to him about when he would be allowed to leave the club during a meeting at Lennoxtown on Friday.
Rodgers sanctioned the sale of Dembele to French club Lyon for a Scottish record £20m fee before the transfer deadline closed following controversial posts the player made on Twitter late on Thursday night and early on Friday.
The Northern Irishman, who had initially blocked the move on Thursday because he had no suitable replacement, felt the continued presence of the striker would be detrimental to dressing-room harmony.
The 45-year-old was, with Dembele making reference to “a lie” in his social media output, clearly keen to set the record straight yesterday.
“The whole episode really was disappointing,” said Rodgers. “I will say a bit on it then that will be it then. It has obviously been very much one way. I had a very close relationship with Moussa. I enticed him to come here with a plan going forward. He was, of course, desperate for the move. We wanted to try and keep him because we didn’t have another option. But then there was a line that was overstepped.
“I have been in this situation enough times to know whether you can pull it back or not.
“I needed to speak to Moussa. I had a few other senior members of staff with me, and I just asked: ‘Can you tell me and the guys in the room if you received promises from me or any member of Celtic?’ It was very clear and categoric that he said: ‘No’.
“So once he said that that was fine. I said: ‘You can now go if you can get the move’. There is a lot of integrity here within our staff and in how we work.”
“I understand the model here at Celtic – it is very much about these talents coming in, you developing them and then moving them on. But there was a lot of stuff that was said that was not so nice and ironically not true. But Moussa got his move, he is back home, he is happy. Deep down, I know he is a good boy.”
Rodgers indicated that Ryan Christie, who came on for Tom Rogic in the second half yesterday, would feature more prominently in future following Dembele’s exit.
“It was very clear it should have been a simple summer for us in terms of getting in the three, maximum four, players that we wanted,” he said. “That didn’t happen. We got other players in, good players who will come in and help us. We will have a review, like we always do, so that is nothing new. We will sit and look at it and then we will push on with the rest of the season.
“There are opportunities for young Ryan Christie now. We have got a lot of young players who can come in and come through.”