BBC Sportsound pundit Tam McManus has been left gobsmacked that Celtic have managed to get a reported £19million for striker Moussa Dembele after his move to Olympique Lyonnais.
The French hitman joined the Ligue 1 outfit in a deadline day deal after two years at Parkhead, leaving manager Brendan Rodgers with just Leigh Griffiths and new record arrival Odsonne Edouard as his options up top.
Despite leaving the Hoops looking pretty thin up top, McManus delivered a rave review on their transfer business involving the 22-year-old, believing the club had to sell up and the price received is brilliant.
Writing on his personal Twitter account, he said: “18m for Dembele is terrific business for Celtic. Player clearly unsettled and wanted to go. The club got the absolute most they could have got IMO. Had to punt him now. 18m for a player they picked up for 500k is unreal.”
https://twitter.com/The_Tman10/status/1035623771426758658
Opinion
It is hard to argue that this is a good bit of business for Celtic right now but you can understand where McManus is coming from. The amount of money that the Hoops have reportedly secured for his sale is astounding considering he has not been at his best over the last 12 months, although Lyon may well be paying through the nose for the potential he possesses. However, while the price they managed to demand from the French side is great, having money in the bank is useless when you are lacking in options up top. This deal came too late on deadline day for the Hoops to make a success of it, and they are now sitting on a big pile of cash simply waiting for the January window to come around. Will it be a case of it being too late for the Hoops, with the group stages of the Europa League over by that point and much of the domestic season out of the way? Time will tell, and fans will likely not be as excited as McManus is over their finances.