CELTIC legend Davie Hay admitted he is delighted his old club were not bullied into selling Moussa Dembele and Craig Gordon during the transfer window.
Both players were linked with Chelsea and Stamford Bridge boss Antonio Conte revealed he was desperate to land the Scotland international keeper.
And there are reports he will look again at the French Under-21 striker in the summer, but there was no way that Brendan Rodgers was going to sell his 20-goal star.
A figure of £40million was being bandied about last month, but former manager and player Hay reckons the Parkhead outfit will benefit by insisting he remained at the club until the end of the season, at the very least.
He said: “Obviously, there was great interest in Dembele and speculation that he may have gone to Chelsea, but Celtic didn’t need to sell and that was a big factor in him staying at the club.
“In Gordon’s case, I think he will be given a huge boost by the fact that a team like Chelsea came in for him, but when you weigh it up the financial benefit he would have got there wasn’t worth going down to be a number two, in my opinion.
“And, after all, he will still be the beneficiary of the interest, because he will be rewarded for his fine form with a new contract as well.
“But, with Dembele, the pleasing thing from a Celtic perspective is that the player himself wasn’t agitating for a move and seems genuinely happy to still be at the club.
“It seems to register with the player that at this moment in time, Celtic Park is the best place for him to develop and improve for the foreseeable future.”
Hay, now an ambassador of the champions, added: “There may have been some supporters who would have liked to have seen a little more transfer activity with players coming in early in preparation for the summer.
“However, there’s no point in bringing in somebody at the moment if it is not the right person.
“It would obviously be good to bed people in for the early Champions League qualifiers – and I think that Kouassi Eboue will benefit from that – but with the league sewn up already there was no need for any knee-jerk, panic signings.
“Brendan Rodgers doesn’t need anyone for the domestic front and even if he had lost Dembele and Gordon, Celtic would still go on and win the league at a canter and probably the treble, too.”
