Celtic podcaster Stuart Dougan believes that youngster Karamoko Dembele might stay at Parkhead and get some first-team opportunities this season.
Dougan was recently a guest on the latest episode of The Cynic podcast and the panel talked about many issues surrounding the Parkhead side. Dougan focused on Dembele and what the future might hold for the youngster and if he will get some first-team opportunities in the upcoming season.
Dembele recently featured for the Hoops in their pre-season friendly against Hibernian and he even scored a goal for them in the 3-1 win.
When talking about his future at the Glasgow-based club and where he played against Hibs, Dougan said: “He started out on the right, but then he kind of played through the middle a bit more, but he looked like he was completely accepting that he was going to get fouled.
Do you think Dembele should be loaned out this summer?
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“One of the important things to look at is how does he react to that? Does he stamp his feet, does he huff? Absolutely not, he gets back up every single time and just accepts that he’s going to be targeted like that. But I think that he could become invaluable in terms of breaking down stubborn defences. And it is a luxury if it’s a fourth or fifth substitute. So I suspect that he might be one of the ones that sticks around.”
Dougan believes that Dembele knows that he will be targeted by opposition players and he could be important to helping Celtic break down rigid defences. Because of that, he can prove to be a ‘luxury’ for the Bhoys next season.
TIF Thoughts…
Dembele’s performance had attracted praise from Neil Lennon after the Hibs performance and the Celtic boss had said that they want the youngster to be ‘around’ the first-team squad in the season. Lennon also said that he may ‘dip in and out’ and they need to be careful with the youngster.
The 17-year-old has made only three first-team appearances for the Hoops so far and played a couple of times last season. He became the club’s youngest ever player to play in European competition when he featured against Cluj in a Europa League game.
All this shows that Lennon does trust Dembele, even though he is pretty young. So it would be intriguing to see how much he plays next season and if Lennon’s trust pays off or not.