Deal to bring Dembele to Celtic Park should be commended
HEROES are born and reputations forged on nights like Wednesday at Celtic Park. With the continent watching, Moussa Dembele put in his signature performance in a Celtic jersey, scoring two goals and generally leading the line with the kind of strength and intelligence that is highly-prized by all the richest clubs in the world.
Okay, so one of his two strikes came from a marginally offside position and the other was an overhead kick which wasn’t the cleanest of contacts in history. Possibly his only slapdash piece of hold-up play on the night was clinically punished for Manchester City’s second equaliser. But they seemed like details after a performance which wasn’t quite Henrik Larsson’s heroic effort in the 2003 UEFA Cup final but wasn’t a bad imitation for a 20-year-old.
His showing must have been enough to cause a few red faces among the scouting fraternity. Because it is worth reminding yourself that by rights this promising young talent from the Parisien suburb of Pontoise shouldn’t be anywhere near the Ladbrokes Premiership. Fulham could right now be spending the £5m Tottenham offered them for the player in January, or some similarly exorbitant sum from a Chelsea side who were monitoring the situation. Instead, they are counting the loose change in the £400,000 they got for him from Celtic.
But everyone who saw the possibilities of this deal and made it happen should be commended. Celtic got a big talent at bargain basement prices and are already reaping the benefit. So too are a player and an agent prepared to think outside the box, as Dembele has gained a genuine chance to knock off his rough edges and showcase himself on the Champions League stage, rather than 10 minutes here or there or a loan deal somewhere. Celtic and Scottish football would be best advised to enjoy him while he is still here, as the odds are against Dembele spending his next seven years at the club like Larsson, but the 20-year-old still has time on his side in his attempts to conquer the world.
“Big games make big players,” said Dembele. “When you play in the big games you have to produce your best. Hopefully I did that.”
The display was even more remarkable considering the trauma of his unconverted penalty in the opening match day against Barcelona. “After I missed I tried to forget about it and move on to the next game,” he said. “That’s what I have done.”
Wherever Dembele goes on to achieve his goals in future, for now the equation for Celtic in all likelihood boils down to getting the better of back-to-back games with Borussia Moenchengladbach to carry on beyond Christmas in the Europa League. Mind you, there was no such defeatist talk after a performance like the one Celtic produced on Wednesday night.
“This is a vital point for us, all points are important if we want to go on,” said Dembele. “Never mind talking about the Europa League. We are still in the Champions League. We have to take it game by game and do our best and we will see where that takes us.”
Parkhead, where Celtic have lost just three times in 25 group stage games, continues to be a lethal weapon. “It won’t be easy for any team to come here,” said Dembele. “It’s such a special place. Teams feel it when they come out on to the pitch. The supporters are so important for us. They get behind us for the entire game. That is the magic of Paradise. I am very happy to play here every week. It makes you feel like you can do anything you want to.”
This was a team performance, not merely an individual one, but Nir Bitton accepted that his young striker had stolen the show. “Moussa is a top striker but we are lucky because we have two of them, with Leigh Griffiths as well,” said Bitton. “It doesn’t matter which of them plays because either of them will make us better.
“Ultimately, it’s about Celtic and not about Moussa or Leigh or any one player,” added the Israeli midfielder.