Celtic pundit Paul John Dykes has recently been talking about the situation of Odsonne Edouard.
Dykes was hosting the latest episode of the ‘A Celtic State of Mind’ podcast and the panel discussed multiple issues involving the Bhoys. One topic that Dykes focused on was Edouard. He feels that if he was a manager and one of his players was doing well on international duty but wasn’t performing for the club, he would be ‘concerned’ about his situation.
Edouard recently broke Moussa Dembele’s goalscoring record for the French Under-21s team, as he grabbed a brace for the side against Switzerland U21s last week. However, he is yet to score from open play in the league for Celtic since the first game of the Premiership campaign, with his goals against Ross County and Hibernian coming from the penalty spot.
Do you think Edouard will leave Celtic in January?
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Speaking before Celtic’s defeat to Sparta Prague on Thursday, Dykes issued his fears about whether Edouard is playing for the manager and the club at present given his contrasting form.
He said: “I think the question of Edouard is a massive one. It’s certainly one of the mitigating factors of Celtic’s inconsistent performances this season so far. So I think when you’re looking at that, if I was a manager and one of my star players was quite happy to go away and perform and was able to perform for his international side, but then when he comes back he looks like a shell of the player that we know he can be, that would concern me.
“I would be thinking that he’s not playing for me as an individual, or he’s not playing for the club, because he’s wanting out of the club.”
TIF Thoughts on Dykes’ comments regarding Edouard…
Edouard’s agent had previously claimed that the striker is happy at Parkhead and he is currently enjoying life in the country, while Celtic’s chase for their 10th Premiership title in a row is important for the Frenchman (as per the Daily Record).
While this suggests that Edouard is satisfied at Celtic, Neil Lennon has suggested that transfer speculation has affected him. So it is tough to understand Edouard’s situation. Since he’s not scored a league goal from open play since the game against Hamilton and hasn’t scored a single goal in the group stage of the Europa League, it is understandable why Dykes is concerned.