Celtic great John Hartson has hailed the club’s transfer savvy in getting £20million for unsettled striker Moussa Dembele.
The 22-year-old made the switch from Scotland to France this summer when he joined Lyon, making the Hoops a healthy profit in the process.
“I have to say, Brendan [Rodgers] basically made the £20million for the club from Dembele,” Hartson told the Evening Times. “He took the boy from Fulham for pennies and then banked the profit two years later.
“The lad only came to Celtic because he knew that he would get better working under Brendan; he would get game time and the chance to develop.
“I think it is an unbelievable bit of business,” he said.
OPINION
Signing a player for nothing and then selling him two years later for £20million is a fantastic bit of business, Hartson is right. Celtic have lost a top quality player in Dembele, of course, but he clearly didn’t want to remain at the club so it made perfect sense to sell him. It then became a matter of getting as much as the club could for him, and in that sense £20million is a great result for the Parkhead side. They must now use that money in the January transfer window and next summer, because they didn’t bring in enough quality this pre season. They now have the cash to go and bring in a few players in January, so the Dembele sale will benefit them in the long run. The Frenchman is still just 22 years of age, so he would have only got better at Celtic, but he’d clearly made his mind up to leave. Hartson is correct, this was a fine bit of business for the club.