It is a truth universally acknowledged that any striker of a new club in possession of a shirt faces a countdown to that first goal. As such, there has been the faint sound of a background clock ticking since Moussa Demeble arrived in Glasgow; the jury in these parts does not tend to deliberate.
It remains early days for the 20-year-old striker who was the first signing of Brendan Rodgers’ regime when he signed a four year deal from Fulham at the end of June. That first goal has so far proved elusive and it is fair to say that its lack will hang around his shoulders like a heavy woollen coat until he can shrug it off.
The striker, who had been pursued by Tottenham Hotspur in the January transfer window, netted 17 goals for Fulham last term, and has acknowledged that he can feel the weight of expectation as he takes to the field.
READ MORE: Scott Brown: Rangers are not our biggest threat in battle for league title
“I understand that people are expecting from me personally and I understand what they are expecting from me,” said the Frenchman. “But they have to be patient and I have to be patient as well. I want things to come quickly and so do others, but it can be hard and I just want to produce good games for the team and, hopefully, everything will go well.
“It almost feels as though we are still in pre-season and we are getting fitness up game by game for the challenges which are coming. I feel as though I’m getting fitter and sharper with every game that I play.”
READ MORE: Scott Brown: Rangers are not our biggest threat in battle for league title
Timing at this stage of the season for Celtic, however, is everything. The Champions League qualifiers do not wait for fitness and sharpness to come but rather slam into the opening weeks of the summer, laying the foundations for the rest of the season.
Much hinges on the second leg of Celtic’s third round UEFA Champions League qualifier. The away goal in Kazakhstan gives them an edge in the tie but seeing the game out in Glasgow is imperative to the tone of the entire campaign. Seeing off FC Astana tomorrow night will guarantee European football of at least one variety; getting to the conclusive play-off round for the group stages of the Champions League would at least ensure a safety net into the Europa League should they come up short.
Dembele did not start against Barcelona at the weekend as Leigh Griffiths led the line, while last week in Kazakhstan he was replaced by Nir Bitton, a move that effectively altered the game in Celtic’s favour.
While he is keenly aware of the need to make an impression, the striker has nonetheless insisted that the priority at this stage of the season is qualification rather than individual success stories.
“Wednesday night is a huge game for us as players and for the club on the whole,” said Dembele. “But it is that the team wins which is most important for me because we really want to progress. If I score, that would be good for me, but it’s all about the team, getting the right result, it’s not about me.
“Astana is a good team and it was close between them and us in the first leg. We scored that goal away from home which is an advantage for us, but it is only the first half and the second half has not even started yet.
“We showed desire in Kazakhstan to get the goal near the end of the game, but nothing is decided yet. We have to maintain our focus and concentrate on Wednesday night, not what happened in the first leg over there.”
The incentive of Champions League football would have held considerable sway for Demebele when he weighed up the move to Glasgow but there is still work ahead in trying to get to Europe’s premier tournament.
“These Champions League qualifiers are very massive for me,” he said. “As a young kid, you always dreamed to play in the competition. But I’m not looking at the Champions League group stages, I’m just looking at the second leg against Astana.
“This is a qualifier. It’s not the Champions League group stages yet. That’s the mentality. It’s game by game and we have to win them if we want to get there.”
Griffiths has shown a willingness to pick up where he left off last season. Last year’s Player of the Year netted the goal in Kazakhstan and also found the net, however fortuitously, against Barcelona during Saturday’s International Champions Cup game in Glasgow.
Finding a way for both strikers to work in tandem might be the remit of the coming weeks for Rodgers.
“He’s [Griffiths] started the season really well, but he showed his quality last season with the amount of goals that he scored,” said Dembele.
“That’s what he does and it’s good for me to play alongside him, just as it’s good for him to play alongside me, I think. That’s good for the team and, hopefully, we can produce good things for the team and the club. The fans expect many goals from us this season and they are right. We have to show that we can play good together.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here