WEST HAM appeared to kicked off a bidding war for Celtic’s sensational young French striker Moussa Dembele by making a suggestion of a £20million bid.
The 19-goal Celtic striker has been watched by the Hammers recently, but Hoops boss Brendan Rodgers and the club are not encouraging suitors for Dembele and are ready to knock back any bids this window.
The Parkhead gaffer has repeatedly insisted the French Under-21 hitman is not for sale.
As recently as Saturday, Rodgers said: “He won’t go in January. There’s no question about that.
“We don’t need to sell. We need our best players here for the remainder of the season.
“He has had a very good season and I can’t stop people writing about him or his valuation.
“But he’s very happy here and enjoying working and developing. That’s the reason he came here.”
Dembele, who is currently in Paris with his family, is happy at Celtic and has stated today that he isn’t interested in speculation or newspaper stories about transfer. He is happy in Glasgow and enjoying his football at Celtic where is has played a significant role in the club achieving a remarkable start to the season.
Celtic have been undefeated domestically, have won the Betfred Cup without conceding a goal – with Dembele scoring in every round – and have dropped only two points all season in a 2-2 draw up at Inverness in September.
Dembele has started the three games against Sevco Rangers this season – two in the league and the other in the Betfred Cup – and scored 5 goals in the process.
The player’s agent was widely praised in the summer for the intelligent move of selecting Celtic as the player’s destination after spending a season in the Championship at Fulham. Celtic signed the player for a bargain £500,000 but will hold firm in the face of the any offer received during this transfer window and hopefully beyond.
A £20m bid, which would be the biggest offer ever made to a Scottish club for a player, wouldn’t meet Celtic valuation for the player.
Maybe West Ham were just testing the water?
Nothing doing at Parkhead, try Sunderland.
