Chris Hughton of Brighton will open the bidding for Moussa Dembele as soon as, if he hasn;t already, the transfer window opens.
He’ll wave £18 million in the air and invite the young Frenchman to come and ply his trade on Englands south coast.
Then it should all get a bit silly, and the sillier it gets the more chance there is of Dembele heading south. Or possibly even to the continent.
The Liverpool Echo reports that online betting firm Oddschecker are saying that 85% of bets on where Dembele will end up are being placed on Everton.
That could be a dozen bets, or a thousand. Its more likely to be a dozen.
Chelsea are favourites to land Dembele’s signature.
Bet Victor offer 8/1 for a west London return with a move to Chelsea while Tottenham, Brighton and Serie A side Fiorentina are 10/1 shots to be his port of call once the January transfer window closes.
Everton are rated at 12/1 alongside David Moyes’ West Ham United and their fellow Londoners Crystal Palace.
Oddschecker spokesperson George Elek said: “Celtic will be doing everything in their power to keep hold of wonder kid Dembele, but Everton have shown recently that they are happy to pay over the odds to land their targets.
“Chelsea, who were linked strongly to the striker in the summer, could well reignite their interest should Everton’s advances be entertained.”
Brendan Rodgers, on Talksport Radio, said;
What I understand working up here is that there is a natural process. Players will develop here and improve and are doing so under the pressure of playing in front of 60,000 fans at home so you know that if a player leaves Celtic they can go and cope with the pressures at any club.
There’s always the issue that if players are on x here and are offered four times that somewhere else then it’s very hard for a club to stand in the way of a player.
We give players the chance to come here and develop and improve and I think there’s a natural side to this where it’s hard to stand in a player’s way if a big offer comes in.
Ah, well…it had to happen sometime, and frankly, its better to sell him now than wait until he hurts himself again.
The money will pay for the promising Oddsone Edouard and maybe give the Griff a pay rise.
With Virgil van Dijk -remember him ?-finally about to be allowed to exit his Southampton nightmare, there will be another few quid being transferred to Celtic as they are due a percentage of the profit, thought to be thirteen , which could pay for a couple of defenders.
Shame he isn’t the former player being mentioned as returning to the club.
And no, I’ve no idea who that is, or even if there’s any substance to it.
But if I were to speculate, that is make something up, I’d say we are after Jason Denayer, but he’s on loan until the summer, and is under contract at Manchester City until 2020.
Another heading out is Liam Henderson, either to Hibernian or Bari, the Serie B side who presumably have a scouting network better than most.
For Henderson, a move to Italy would give him a chance to succeed at the very highest level, as David Platt showed many years ago when he started at Bari before ending up at Juventus.
We wish him well.
To the incomings again, and we can be fairly certain that the former player returning will not be Kris Commons.
Commons finds it strange that Celtic have signed Marvin Comperr, as indeed do I, and explains why..
“I find it strange Celtic have signed a defender who is 32,”
“When they are over 30, there are a few doubts in terms of ‘how long have they got?’ and their fitness levels. Is he going to be sharp enough? He is a big boy.
“He is not able to play in the Europa League, and I think that is where they need him. Go and get a centre-half who can take you to the next level.
“Hearts really put the fear into the Celtic back four last Sunday and it was the sort of performance that European teams do to Celtic, putting them under pressure.
“They played in all the wrong areas, and individual mistakes cost them, especially in central defence.
“There was evidence that a centre-half needs to come in, not necessary to play, but to put pressure on the players there. Dedryck Boyata, Jozo Simunovic, Erik Sviatchenko – they must be thinking ‘I need to up my game and concentrate on what I am doing, with and without the ball’.
“Celtic need an experienced defender for European competition, but this guy coming in is not eligible to play in Europe. And he is 32. How long is he going to play? Three years? If he doesn’t hit the ground running, they are going to be looking for a new centre-half in the summer.
“I think they need to go for a player who is playing at a good level of football, who is between 25 and 28, that has good experience and knows what the club is all about. He can play in Europe and slot straight into the team. Compper is 32, going on 33, so there has got to be a slight risk there.”
And presumably one who doesn’t throw his toys out of the pram in fron of the cameras if he’s substituted..
Commons is raising his profile in the media. So far, he’s at least showing a wee bit more independent thought than most, and fair play to him.
But, as with Chris Suttons tantrum at Ibrox, it takes a while for some images to fade.
Today should be an interesting one.
The statements are already on the screens ready to send as “rangers ” and Dave King will find out whether or not Lord Bannatyne has upheld the Takeover Panel decision which should be a reason to stock up on jelly and ice cream.
Have a glance at this site round about lunchtime..
We can be certain that Level % and their media chums will play it down, but the reality is that this does matter, and will see at least King out, and quite possibly another big scam to fleece fans , sorry, plea to fans to save the club, as the bad guys try to get one last hit before looking for a house in South America.
Keep your eye out for the statement, it’ll be a pisser.
The girl who was struck in the face by the ball at the Partick game on Wednesday has adopted a very mature and sensible attitude to the whole thing..
Two tickets for Firhill…poor lass. They really have got it in for her down there.
She should be commended for not making a big deal of it, as these days the litigation culture imported from the USA has seen all sorts of ridiculous claims which don’t really solve anything, but then again, if she feels faint, dizzy, off balance, has a headache or a tooth falls out, then she should go for it.
Had it been me I’d have already spent most of the money and been paid by the media for pictures of my injuries..
The match day stewards have been coming in for a bit of criticism after it was alleged they demanded to see a facebook profile to prove a young man was in possession of the correct season card.
Apparently they even tried to take the lads card away.
Trying to take away cards is not going to end well….
John Paul Taylor, who was probably looking forward to a bit of peace and quiet this Christmas, would like to help anyone affected by this apparent change in policy from helpful and professional stewarding to competing for the Etims Knob of the Week award.
Followed up on comments ref last night & been assured there was no change to the standard match day operation or briefings. If you have details of specific issues which occurred please send to me so each case can be investigated individually, thanks
Personally, I think he’s right. The stewards haven’t changed anything about the way they do things.
Friday means
Knob of the Week
and this week its been a little more difficult to spot an outstanding candidate.
Actually, no it isn’t.
Captions now, and this picture yesterday…
produced three winners of one of these..
from these guys Edenmill
In no particular order, these three people will be contacted by email later today for their details..
Caption: Danny: Got this in a fortune cookie boss, says we’re going to go 69 games unbeaten
Neil: That’s amazing Danny
Danny: Well…that’s the good news…
Danny. So after Joey Barton moved out there were thousands of these slips all over the house.
Caption..
Danny… here lenny it says that your new assistant is called Delilah..
Lenny… that’s it I’m off…I just cannae take any mer
I’ll be emailing you later..