Sky Sports Pundit Reacts To “Disappointing” Celtic News

A transfer update involving former Celtic forward Moussa Dembele has been described as “disappointing” for the Hoops by pundit Alan Hutton.

What’s the latest news on Dembele and how will it impact Celtic?

Celtic Park chiefs sold Dembele to Lyon back in 2018 in a deal worth just under £20m. Since then, the 26-year-old has gone on to make 171 appearances for the Ligue 1 side, scoring 70 times and registering 19 assists.

However, an exit appears to be on the cards, with the player set to become a free agent at the end of the season. Fabrizio Romano recently revealed that the forward will depart for nothing over the coming months, saying:

“Moussa Dembele will leave Olympique Lyon as free agent in the summer. No doubts, decision made and to be confirmed at the end of the season. Many clubs are keen on signing him on free deal; Serie A and Premier League clubs included. Race is still very open.”

This means that Celtic won’t receive any further money for Dembele after inserting a 15% sell-on clause in the deal that took the Frenchman to Lyon.

Talking to Football Insider, Hutton, who contributes for Sky Sports, said that the update on Dembele would be “disappointing” for those at Celtic.

“Missing out on any sort of money for a player is disappointing. When you let contracts run down, we have seen it with Kent, Morelos, players that could have gone for big numbers. It is not ideal.

“Dembele showed a lot of promise, he is an outstanding footballer, he had a great move that has probably not worked out the way you want it to.

“From a Celtic position you want players to kick on but it has obviously not quite worked. It will be interesting to see where he goes from here, if he can get back to the heights that he showed. But it has just not quite worked.”

Could have been so much better for Celtic…

Dembele has been a solid performer for Lyon, scoring 21 Ligue 1 goals in 30 games last season. However, he has struggled this season, netting just three times in the league, something which may have contributed to his pending Lyon exit.

It looked at one point as if Celtic were in line to receive a large fee from their sell-on clause, with Manchester United once linked with a £50m move for the forward which would have brought in £15m at Parkhead.

However, that won’t be the case now, although they could have more luck in the sell-on clause for Jeremie Frimpong, with a potential £13.2m windfall on te cards this sumer.