MOUSSA Dembele is capable of rediscovering the goalscoring form which made him one of the hottest properties in European football last season and significantly increasing his market value at the same time - if he remains at Celtic in the second half of the 2017/18 campaign.

That was the view expressed yesterday by Sylvain Ripoll, the France Under-21 manager who is convinced the striker has now recovered fully from the injuries which sidelined him for several months last year and is poised to get back to his very best.

Dembele has been repeatedly linked with a £20 million move to Barclays Premier League club Brighton - where manager Chris Hughton has publicly admitted that he is an admirer – during the January transfer window.

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The 21-year-old has been unable to reach the heights which he scaled immediately after joining Celtic in a £500,000 transfer from English Championship club Fulham in 2016 in recent months.

He netted no fewer than 32 goals in all competitions and scored in Champions League group games against Manchester City and Borussia Moenchengladbach as well as in three consecutive meetings with Rangers.

But this season Dembele has often disappointed and has only found the target on eight occasions - leading to speculation that he is eager to move on to a top flight club down south and also that his club is keen to cash in on him.

However, Ripoll has defended the professionalism of his player and insisted the hamstring strain which he picked up in the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final back in April and then suffered a recurrence of after he had made his competitive comeback in a Champions League qualifier against Linfield in July has had a negative impact on his displays.

The former Lorient manager stressed that he has seen his charge’s fitness and sharpness steadily improve during the France Under-21 side’s European Championship qualifying campaign this season.

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Dembele failed to get his name on the scoresheet in his national team’s opening four Group Nine games – but he bagged a hat-trick in the 3-1 triumph over Slovenia away in November to keep his country on top of their section.

Ripoll is convinced that Celtic, who take on Zenit St. Petersburg in the last 32 of the Europa League next month, will be rewarded on and off the park if they reject any bids which come in for the player this month.

“Moussa knows the problem is to do with injury,” he said. “At the end of last season and the beginning of this season he was out with injury. After that it is difficult to come back. He needs time to find his fitness.

“He missed a lot of pre-season and a lot of games at the beginning of the season. He didn’t play the same number of games as he did the season before. For me, that is the reason, the difficulty he had at the beginning of the season.

“But it has been obvious to me that he has come back to a good level now with the national team. In the last game we played with Slovenia he scored three goals. I saw a lot more quality there than I had two months before. Moussa is a great goalscorer. He is very good when the ball arrives in the penalty area.

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“It’s logical he has not been at his very best. All players need to play games to get themselves fully fit. Moussa was out of the team for three months at the end of last season and then again at the start of this season. You have to be patient to get the best out of the player.”

Ripoll revealed he is a huge admirer of Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers and predicted that both Dembele and Olivier Ntcham, who also plays for the France Under-21 side, can improve further and realise their vast potential as a result of working under the Northern Irishman in Scotland.

“Brendan Rodgers is a very, very good manager,” he said. “I don’t know him personally, but I obviously know the work he has done at the clubs he has been at in his career, at Swansea City, at Liverpool and at Celtic.

“I have a big respect for Brendan Rodgers and how his teams play football. Moussa and Olivier both work with a good manager and that is good for their development.”

Ripoll has travelled to Glasgow to watch Dembele and Ntcham in action for Celtic twice this season – in the Champions League qualifier against Rosenborg in July and then Group B meeting with Anderlecht last month.

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He believes that having his players, who have won all five of their European Under-21 Championship qualifying matches so far, involved in continental competition with their clubs is beneficial to them as well as his side.

“I understand that Brendan Rodgers wants to keep his player,” he said. “If I was him I would think the same. But I don’t know what is going to happen. Perhaps he (Dembele) will go to a very, very big club. But Celtic is a very big club for him to play at and score goals at.

“Having players who play in the Europa League and the Champions League is certainly good for us. The more games they can play at a high level the more good experience they can get. That helps the France Under-21 team when they play. They can use the experience they get.

“Moussa and Olivier are very important to the national team selection because they are players who play with a big club and who are used to playing in big matches. I think that is important.”

Both Demeble and Ntcham, the central midfielder who was signed from Manchester City for a £4.5 million transfer fee during the summer, have experienced mixed fortunes during recent months.

Ntcham has been exceptional in many games, most notably the Champions League play-off matches against Astana back in August, but he has failed to perform quite as well in other outings.

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Ripoll, though, believes that is due to the duo’s youth and inexperience and he is confident their consistency will improve with time as they make more appearances for the Glasgow club.

“It is difficult to play at this level,” he said. “It’s logical for young players to have some good games and some not so good games to begin with. It is difficult to progress. They have to play regularly and work hard.”

Celtic have enjoyed great success both on and off the park signing raw young foreign players over the years – they have made multi-million pound profits on the likes of Ki Sung-Yueng, Victor Wanyama and Virgil van Dijk.

Ripoll, the former Rennes, Le Mans and Lorient player and Lorient manager, is confident that both Dembele and Ntcham can win transfers to clubs in bigger leagues in future and earn the Parkhead club more money if they want to move on.

He said: “I was very pleased when Olivier signed for Celtic because I think it’s a very good club for him - and I also thought it was a very good idea for Celtic to sign him because he is a great player. Olivier is important for the collective of the team. He always thinks to the team and has a good technique as well.

“I think both Moussa and Olivier also have the potential to go on and do very well in the game in the future. But they have to have the right mentality and work all the time.”