The news that Eddie has been called up to the French Under 21 international team again is not something that is going to come as a great surprise to most people.
Except, perhaps, to those assorted hacks who think he’s not trying a leg and therefore we are unlikely to get a big fee for him come the summer.
They believe anything negative about us.
But the people who matter – club chairmen, scouts and managers – know better than to believe media negativity.
They know better than to believe that Edouard’s alleged poor form is the only guide they should be using. They know Celtic has been in turmoil this season.
They also know that Eddie has had injuries and even a viral outbreak over the course of it.
The club manager has been terminated.
The CEO is on his way out the door. Fans have protested outside the ground. Outsiders look at Celtic and see a tumultuous season; nobody thinks Edouard is a lesser player for being stuck at the heart of all that.
Big teams continue to sniff around him.
Massive clubs are linked with a summer transfer move for his signature. Idiots in the press corps might try to suggest that we’d struggle to get even the £15 million which they were quoted less than a month ago, but the people who matter – and that’s not them, in spite of what they believe – value him much higher than that.
The French Under 21 team is still a prestigious environment. When you consider the riches that they have available to them, and especially in Edouard’s position, it is a badge of honour to have done so well at that level … and certainly teams in his native land realise that it makes him a prime candidate for full national caps in the near future.
Other clubs will realise that too. Edouard will play for the senior team.
That’s what makes all these questions over his true value about as daft as they could be. For what does a full French international forward go at in the current transfer market? £50 million? Higher?
If we get half of that it will stun all those people who have confidently predicted that those kind of figures are unrealisable; they are dead wrong.
Odsonne’s career has continued to move forward in spite of all the tribulations which are part and parcel of being a Celtic player at this moment in time.
We will see the full measure of that when it is time to sell him when the summer comes.
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