Brendan Rodgers has conceded that Moussa Dembele’s head has been turned by the speculation surrounding the Frenchman’s future.
Dembele was an unused substitute in Celtic’s 5-0 romp over Brechin City in the fourth round of the William Hill Scottish Cup as the holders marched along on the road to Hampden.
The 21-year-old, who racked up 32 goals during his first season with the Glasgow club, has been a shadow of his former self in the current campaign.
Conjecture surrounding possible moves to Everton, Crystal Palace and Brighton in the January transfer window has not helped Dembele’s general state of mind and Rodgers admitted he was treating his young striker with a protective arm.
The Celtic manager said: “There have been a couple of enquiries for him and I think it is clear he has not been quite the same as he’s been for over a year or so.
“My job as the manager and the leader of the team is to ensure his focus is purely on Celtic. He’s a good kid, but for a lot of players January is a difficult window.
“There is lot of speculation, lots of things happening. My job is always to protect the club and ensure everyone who plays is totally focused.
“Moussa is fine. There have been a few enquiries and we will see what happens between now and the end of the month.”
Rodgers remains confident that, should Dembele stay in the east end of Glasgow, then he will soon return to the form that made him such a valuable asset.
Rodgers added: “This window, it is a difficult window for players. They are unsure, especially in his case. But he has no issue, there is no problem. I could have played him today but for the team and for the dynamic of everything I wanted to put young Odsonne Edouard in. Moussa is training, he is working and if nothing happens between now and the end of January then between then and the end of the season we will see that player really focussed and fighting and running and working for the team.”
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel