How many times must we go over this, and over this, and over this?
How many times does Moussa Dembele need to say he won’t leave Celtic in January? How many times does he have to say he’s here for a while? How many times does Brendan have to say it? How many times does the club have to?
None has equivocated. They all say the same thing, almost in the same words. Moussa Dembele is staying at Celtic. He will be here for the Champions League campaign next season. There is no prospect whatsoever of him leaving in the close season far less sooner. These reports are not just stupid, many of them are outright lies.
Liverpool are the latest club to be linked. “Sources close to the club” have said they want him. And where has this been reported? What is the point source of the story itself? A website called Glasgow Live. Who are owned by MGN Limited. Who also own The Daily Record.
(They even share the same address. Check it out.)
If you read it there would you believe it? Of course not. They don’t even have sources in Scotland, far less at a Premiership club. Except at Ibrox. Is Sevco trying to buy him too?
Sources close to the club. Talking to a completely unknown local website. Because Premiership clubs always discuss their transfer strategy with folk like that, eah? If Messi leaves Barcelona you will read it first on Ibrox Noise. Cause that’s the way it’s done.
The story collapses on that front alone.
But you know what else? £20 million is a joke for a player who every club in Europe is watching. The interest may be real – I don’t know one way or another, but if it was I would have expected to read it in a more reputable organ – but there’s no doubt in my mind that Celtic would turn it down flat.
If this becomes an auction we’ll get more. Much more.
Besides, who at Celtic Park would dare sanction this sale, at this stage? The manager’s number one choice striker, before a full season has even elapsed? When we’re chasing an historic treble? The fans would be in uproar, the manager would be fuming … the player himself might not necessarily be happy either. He’s not exactly banging the manager’s door down for a move.
I could go on. But when the club, the player and the manager are all unified in saying Not For Sale and when top clubs from Europe are sending scouts and, according to good sources, real ones, weighing up obscene bids – not ridiculous bids but obscene ones – this is an absolute non-starter, and I know exactly why it’s raised its head now.
There are two obvious reasons; the first is that the hack who wrote it is a lazy scrote.
He’s taken stories in England about Liverpool wanting a front man in January, due to an injury to Danny Ings and the news that Mane will miss three weeks of the season due to international commitments. Well, guess what? Liverpool will sign a striker, but he’s likely to be a stop gap player. Mane will miss a handful of games and along with Sturridge that will be the forward lane, alongside either Firmino or Coutinho. Is Dembele leaving to sit on the bench?
The second reason for this story rearing its head is even clearer; Sevco is in deep crisis and we’re hurtling towards history.
Anything that unsettles our team, or has the potential to, will be seized with two hands.
There’s a reason they let this piece of shit story debut on their low rent website rather than in the pages of The Record itself.
It’s stirring, one Jackson and a certain PR firm don’t want their fingerprints on.
That every other media outlet has picked it up proves nothing except how goddamned lazy they all are.
Because I can’t see that there’s any merit whatsoever in this.