FA chief confirms England are on the trail of Celtic starlet Dembele
MARTIN GLENN, the English FA’s chief executive, has confirmed that 13-year-old Celtic wonderkid Karamoko Dembele is a target for England.
London-born Dembele, who made his debut for Celtic Under-20s earlier this month, is believed to have trained with England Under-15s at St George’s Park this week despite being included in Scotland’s Under-16 Victory Shield squad for Sunday’s clash with Northern Ireland.
Scottish FA chief executive Stewart Regan has vowed that Scotland will do everything they can to stop the their English counterparts from snatching the playmaker. Dembele is eligible to play for Scotland through the ‘school rule’ and could also represent the Ivory Coast through his parents.
Glenn said: “We’ve got a good talent identification programme. Kids come through at that age or they surprise you a little bit later.
“I don’t think anything has changed. He sounds like a talented kid, good luck to him and we’ll see how it goes. Everyone has their trials.”
Glenn, meanwhile, admits Scotland will come up against an England team inhibited by the Three Lions jersey. Gordon Strachan’s side face England in a crucial November 11 World Cup qualifier at Wembley.
Gareth Southgate will be in the England dugout for that game after Sam Allardyce resigned last month having being filmed allegedly agreeing to offer advice on how to get around FA transfer rules. Glenn admits the next permanent manager will need to address any mental frailties among the players.
He said: “If you look at us, we have been very successful in winning tournaments in the development teams, the Under-21s, the Under19s.“When we put our kids up against the best in the world, we’re winning. We’re not translating that enough when it comes to the men’s senior teams.
“We think the difference is really psychological preparation, this fear factor when you put the England shirt on. The manager that we hire will be someone that really understands that and has really detailed plans to address it. It is how you eliminate the fear factor so that when things go against you, you can adapt on the pitch. We were more than capable of beating Iceland [at Euro 2016] but when things didn’t go our way you could sense the great players actually freezing up.”
Scotland fans face a late rush to get a ticket for the match at Wembley after the Scottish FA announced that a limited number of briefs will be released today.
The Tartan Army have already snapped up their entire 13,700 allocation after the SFA managed to secure an extra 7,000 seats.
But members of the Scotland Supporters Club who missed out on the initial sale can try to get their hands on the remaining tickets today.
Briefs will be available from noon this afternoon to midday on Monday, October 31 and are available from tickets.scottishfa.co.uk. BRENDAN RODGERS fielded what amounted to a reserve side for this potentially awkward away tie against Ross County – and still watched Celtic forge further clear at the head of the Ladbrokes Premiership table.
The Parkhead club lived a charmed life at times and could have had no complaints if their dogged hosts had taken something from the game. The emphatic scoreline was hugely misleading.
But goals from Patrick Roberts early on and Stuart Armstrong, Scott Sinclair and Moussa Dembele at the end ensured the visitors triumphed comfortably and moved seven points in front of Aberdeen at the head of the table.
Should the defending Scottish champions triumph at Pittodrie on Saturday they will be 10 points in front of their nearest rivals with a game in hand.
Rodgers made no fewer than eight changes to the side which defeated Rangers in the Betfred Cup semi-final on Sunday. Only Craig Gordon, Mikael Lustig and Erik Sviatchenko retained their places in the starting line-up.
That meant starts for fringe players Cristian Gamboa at right back – Lustig, who captained the side in the absence of Scott Brown, moved inside to centre half – and Emilio Izaguirre on the left side of the defence.
In midfield, Armstrong and Callum McGregor took over from Brown and Nir Bitton as the deep-lying midfielders in the 4-2-3-1 formation Rodgers once again put his faith in. Ahead of them, Liam Henderson came in on the left, Roberts on the right with Ryan Christie just off lone striker Leigh Griffiths.
Making so many alterations to his team was unusual for Rodgers, who had fielded a full-strength side in the Betfred Cup quarter-final against part-time Alloa. But it made sense given the punishing run of domestic and European matches Celtic are in the midst of at the moment.
And it was a chance for those who have been sitting on the sidelines to stake a claim for a regular start. For Griffiths, who has lost his place to Dembele since being sidelined with a calf injury, and Roberts especially.
The arrival of Scott Sinclair and the form of James Forrest have meant Roberts’s appearances have been limited. But the winger made the most of his opportunity. He opened the scoring in just the third minute.
His strike, though, owed more to poor defending than his undoubted ability. Sure, he did well to cut inside off the right flank and steer a low left foot shot beyond Scott Fox in the bottom corner. But the space he was given by the home team’s defence was incredible.
Liam Boyce, who has been out for almost a month with a knee injury, came into the County team up front along with Chris Burke as Craig Curran and Alex Schalk dropped out. He nearly levelled in the sixth minute after capitalising on a mistake by Lustig, but his effort was denied by the leg of Gordon.
With so many players in the starting line-up eager to impress, there was no shortage of pace, movement or invention in the Celtic side, in attack especially. Roberts created another scoring opportunity in the 18th minute when he backheeled a Gamboa pass into the path of Griffiths. Paul Quinn forced the forward’s attempt into the side netting.
Fox denied first Christie and then Griffiths after some good work by Henderson. County, though, looked every bit as likely to level the match as their opponents did of forging further in