Rodgers: We’ll do right by Moussa
● Celtic boss admits striker’s chance to make big bucks is a factor but no deal is near
Brendan Rodgers has admitted Moussa Dembele could leave during the January transfer window but added that it would take “a lot for that to happen”.
The Celtic manager, who watched his team open up a 11-point lead in the Premiership with a commanding 2-0 win over Dundee at Dens Park yesterday, mocked the erroneous reports on Christmas Day that an £18million bid from Brighton had been accepted for the France Under-21 international, but he did acknowledge that the right offer could yet bring about Dembele’s departure.
Adopting a notably different tone to last year’s January transfer window – when he said Dembele would not be be sold under any circumstances, Rodgers said: “We don’t want to lose any players, of course. And we won’t lose any players. However, if something comes in, it goes back to that issue morally. If there is something where a player can earn five times as much as what he’s on now, then it is very, very difficult to stop him, especially if you get a fee for a player.
“But there is a lot for that to happen, a lot that needs to be right. We don’t need to sell anyone. That’s the idea.
“But I think what is important at Celtic, especially when you are doing well, is you know there’s going to be interest and you have to prepare. And, if we do lose any of our players for the reasons I’ve just said, we hope then we’ll have some to bring in and keep the continuation going of how we are working.”
Dembele came on as a late substitute on an afternoon that brought a goal for Leigh Griffiths when he played in the central striking role – the
first by a Celtic player in that position in six games. Rodgers maintained that Dembele was fully focused in the face of the latest speculation, and would be in the right frame of mind to lead the line against Rangers, if given the nod for Saturday’s home derby.
Rodgers was also able to allay fears that Jonny Hayes had suffered a fractured leg.
That had appeared to be the case after a crunching tackle with Josh Meekings that led to an seven-minute interruption midway through the first half before the Irishman was removed on a stretcher.
“Hopefully it’s not too serious with Jonny,” said Rodgers. “It was clearly hurting him a lot when he was on the pitch, you could see that.
“I feared the worst at the time, when I heard the noise I was looking directly at his leg to see what state it was in. The noise must have just been a clash of their shinpads. He is away for an X-ray and that will tell us where he’s at.
“Both boys came off so I hope Josh Meekings is okay as well. There was nothing in it, there wasn’t any malice. It was just unfortunate.”
Meanwhile, dundee counter part Neil Mccann admitted he had endured a tough time personally following the death of his father hours before he led his side for Saturday’s draw with Motherwell but asked that questions be restricted to football matters. He considered his side lacked the aggression to combat Celtic.
“We needed to up the aggression levels in the second half but we didn’t really do that, we maybe lacked a wee bit of belief that we could get into the game,” he said. “I won’t be too hard on them because we have had three tough games lately. We have one more then we will get into the winter break.”