John Kennedy has scorched claims that some kind of deal has been done for Odsonne Edouard this summer.
You’ll notice that the media narrative has shifted from “Celtic are selling him for £15 million” to “Leicester are confident they can strike a deal.”
Kennedy says that Celtic will decide this issue in the summer.
Note that too. Celtic will decide it.
Not press speculation, not clubs who think they can bully us and do deals with us on the cheap.
Kennedy also spoke of the club doing what’s in its own interests; this certainly means that Eddie will be allowed to go, but it’ll be on our timetable and according to our value.
Edouard is a steal at £25 million. He’s a steal at £30 million.
Clubs, and especially in England, who want him and know what he’s worth can either risk not getting him and pay over the odds for some player from their domestic league who won’t give you half what the Frenchman will or they can get in line and each try to outdo the other.
Ask Arsenal is buying from Celtic is worth the money.
Ask Southampton.
Ask the others clubs down there who have taken top talents off our hands.
The idea that we should accept a nominal fee – for that is what £15 million represents – for a player of this quality is absurd.
“I’ve no doubt there will be interest in Odsonne, as there was last season and all the time he’s been here, but ultimately the club will do the right thing for themselves,” Kennedy said, and that’s the crucial line here. “We want to keep him for as long as we can because of the talent he’s got. But there ultimately comes a point, whether contractually or the player’s motivation, when you have to sit down and address that and that will be done in the summer.”
In the summer. Not “being done right now behind the scenes.”
Whoever it was at Leicester who told the media they were confident has only alerted other clubs to the possibility that he’s available at what amounts to a daylight robbery price-tag.
If they had done things professionally they might have kept the Arsenal’s and other clubs at bay; now those clubs have their nostrils wide open.
If we’re not using that to up the ante I’ll be astonished.
Kennedy’s comments today suggest that’s exactly what we will do.
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