Moussa Dembele has scored another peach of a goal from the French Under 21’s, this time against the English. At the point of writing – there are 25 minutes to go in the game – he has scored twice, the first a neat finish and the second a magnificent free kick.
That brings his tally to five goals in four games at this level, and confirms what we’ve suspected since the season started; we have one Hell of a player here.
There are people who still doubt that.
I wonder what player they are watching; it’s not the one who scored a hat-trick against Sevco at his first time of asking, who netted a cool, calm and collected penalty kick in a major Champions League qualifier and who went on win a penalty against Barcelona and score twice against Manchester City.
This kid is already a class act. He’s only going to improve.
The ridiculous offer is going to come, and it’s going to come much earlier than any of us thought that it might. It will be tempting, so tempting, in how obscene it is. It might come from England or from Spain or Germany or France, the only certainty is that it will come. Our board will be sorely pressed to turn it down because, they will rationalise, such a bid might never come in again.
But you know what?
That will be cobblers.
Dembele says he didn’t come here as a stepping stone.
He wants to develop at Celtic Park, which means staying for years, and I think we should hold him to that. When the season is over we should analyse the situation and make him an improved offer on a longer deal. Tie him up for the next four years and we’ll be guaranteed to have him around for two at least.
If we sell him at the end of the season it will be a tremendous mistake and not just because his skills will be essential to us reaching the Champions League groups next year. On that stage, as part of Brendan’s second stage team, he will stand out even more than he does now and the offers we’d get will dwarf whatever out of left field one we’d get now.
A lot of people think there’s a ceiling on what you will get for a player in the SPL. There is, but it’s not as low as a lot of these folk seem to think it is. We will shatter the Scottish transfer record come what may – not beat it, shatter it.
But a player who has proven himself on that bigger stage, in the elite competition … there’s no ceiling on what a player like that is worth.
The match is still on as I write this; I’ll update the article if he manages to score his hat-trick, but for the moment I simply marvel at the way this boy has burst onto the scene. He’s got to be one of the most exciting players in Europe at the moment, and he wears the Hoops and he cost us less than Sevco just paid to terminate Barton’s contract.
What a footballer he looks. What a talent we have on our hands.
What a great player he is going to be to watch in the next couple of years.
And what a fortune we’ll get for him when he goes.