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Moussa Dembele: Celtic striker joins Lyon in £19.7m move

Last updated on .From the section Celticcomments487

Celtic striker Moussa Dembele has completed a £19.7m move to Lyon, the French club have said.

The Ligue 1 club's president Jean-Michel Aulas saidexternal-link the French under-21 forward has signed a five-year deal.

The Scottish champions announced on Friday night that they had accepted an offer for Dembele.

Manager Brendan Rodgers said earlier in the day that a "significant" bid had been rejected for the 22-year-old, and that he did not expect him to be sold.

However, in a statement, Rodgers later said the fresh bid had been accepted "to serve the best interests" of "the culture and environment" at Celtic.

"The board and myself are united and they have been very supportive to me on this issue," Rodgers said.

Dembele - who was halfway through a four-year deal - sat out Thursday's Europa League win over Suduva after Lyon's bid emerged.

The former Fulham player later posted two tweets, containing messages which read: "A man, without his word, is nothing. A real man keeps his word", and "A lie has many variations, the truth has none".

On Friday, he made a brief appearance on the club's Lennoxtown training pitch before retreating indoors.

"It is vital to make clear that we have never promised any player that he can leave the club at a particular time," added Rodgers in the club statement.

"It has never happened. In fact, we have said all along that we did not wish to sell Moussa, given the circumstances within the transfer window and that is why we rejected a significant offer yesterday.

"However, this particular decision to accept this offer has been taken in order to serve the best interests of the first-team squad, my coaching team and the culture and environment we have created in these last two seasons."

Are Celtic weaker? Or is it good business? - analysis

Sportscene pundit and former Scotland midfielder Michael Stewart

Rodgers said the deal wasn't likely to happen because it didn't give him time to recruit a replacement. What's changed? This transfer window has descended into farce for Celtic. The squad is dramatically weaker now and a lot of it is self inflicted.

BBC Scotland pundit and former Hibs striker Tam McManus

£18m for Dembele is terrific business for Celtic. It's unreal, given they picked him up for £500,000. He was clearly unsettled and wanted to go. The club got the absolute most they could have in my opinion. They had to punt him now.

Chris Sutton
Former Celtic striker and BBC Radio 5 live pundit tweets...
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Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.

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487 comments

  • Comment posted by DiscoRay86, at 22:47 31 Aug 2018

    "A man, without his word, is nothing. A real man keeps his word." - So what about the contract you ended early with Celtic then Moussa? Doesn't say much about your either does it?

    Utterly laughable trying to impose morals onto others, when you don't even have them yourself!

  • Comment posted by JLGillan, at 22:50 31 Aug 2018

    "Well done Brenda, always a good time to sell one of your best players, just as the transfer window is closing !!!"

    It's actually the perfect time to sell because it's when the buying club - Lyon lost tonight with 26 shots and 0 goals - is normally panicking and throwing money around. His replacement was signed months ago in Edouard. Bought for 500k, sold 2 years later for 20m. Expertly done.

  • Comment posted by theworthinger, at 22:42 31 Aug 2018

    Expect an avalanche of "didnae want him anyhow" posts.

  • Comment posted by U16696611, at 22:45 31 Aug 2018

    I reckon that Celtic, over the last few years, have gambled that they will get into the champions league each year and get the £30m to justify their spending. That’s colossally back fired this year and in a mad panic, the board have sold Dembele behind Rodgers back to make up that loss of money and probably would have held out for more if they had more time.

  • Comment posted by Irishwes, at 22:49 31 Aug 2018

    19.2 million pounds profit on a player that wanted to leave! Great bit of business..... but.... there has been talk of this all of the window. How come no replacement was sought! Celtic are putting all lot of hope in the record signing that is French Eddie! That starting 11 from the last home against rangers is still available for Sunday.

  • Comment posted by Tiso, at 22:40 31 Aug 2018

    Edouard is better anyway. Easy profit

  • Comment posted by Steve, at 23:26 31 Aug 2018

    74. That's fine but it would do football the world of good if they would bar these idiots from social media.

    I don't know about everyone else but I am sick to death listening to these morons, just because they are fairly good kicking a ball, acting like they are treated like rowers on a slave ship.

    The richer footballers are the thicker and more boring they become.

  • Comment posted by Grommy, at 22:52 31 Aug 2018

    It's a shame a human being that behaves like a complete,shallow and ignorant prat is allowed to have wealth and a great lifestyle. Says alot about modern day prime donna footballers. Good at their sport but their basic human personality and attituude belongs in the gutter.

  • Comment posted by Jobyfox, at 22:53 31 Aug 2018

    Do Celtic actually need a good transfer window?

    Given the uncompetitive nature of the Scottish Premiership and the paucity of any quality opposition what will this actually mean in reality?

    Maybe they will only win the league by 10 points instead of 20 .....

  • Comment posted by Jago Sevatarion, at 23:13 31 Aug 2018

    In for £0.5M, out for £19.7M. Good business, and the squad harmony is protected.

    Only reason such players come to Scotland is CL exposure, we need to accept that and not blame him for having personal ambition.

  • Comment posted by U16981486, at 23:54 31 Aug 2018

    Crisis at Celtic...
    1 Debt Free
    2 £30m plus sat in the Bank
    3 Going for 8 in a row
    4 European Football till Christmas
    5 £70m Dafabet Deal Just signed
    6 Back to back Trebles
    7 Lost 1 domestic game in 2 years
    Meanwhile over at the Crumbledome...

  • Comment posted by NeutralRed, at 23:24 31 Aug 2018

    Not going to condone poor player power and holding a club to ransom..

    But BR has a history of not always speaking the truth and twisting the media focus to his favour.

    In this case it seems obvious BR promised something in private and then changed his mind.

    Disliked this man at Liverpool. And he's not changed his spots.

    Complete fake manager.

  • Comment posted by tommy, at 22:53 31 Aug 2018

    The money will go to paying the electric bill for the disco lights

  • Comment posted by Nio1, at 09:49 1 Sep 2018

    Joyce you sum up all that is wrong with football and you give the decent Rangers fans a bad name. We all like banter.

    You come on a footballing forum constantly refering to child abuse.

    For no other reason than you are trolling and are bigoted so wish to put those kaflix in their place.

    You are a disgusting individual and have no place In a football forum

    Shame on you

  • Comment posted by McGrory, at 22:50 31 Aug 2018

    2 Numpty
    "Everyone who considers themselves British " should pay their taxes

  • Comment posted by Beat Takeshi, at 22:58 31 Aug 2018

    Lyon panicked into buying a £2m player for £20m. Unfortunate timing for Celtic, but an incredible return on their money.

  • Comment posted by Ook the Librarian, at 06:20 1 Sep 2018

    imagine what would happen if people were as passionate about important things in life as they were about 22 big jessies running around in their underpants kicking a bag of wind and trying not to fall over

  • Comment posted by U16981486, at 00:00 1 Sep 2018

    @133 You do realise that a £1 from Southampton is worth exactly the same as a £1 from Man City?
    If Southampton offer £7m plus adding for a player we bought for £2m and has less than a year left on his contract then this is called a good deal in Football.
    Liverpool paid £35m for Andy Carrol.
    Celtic paid £650k for Henrik Larsson.
    Football economics = Mental

  • Comment posted by graeme, at 22:43 31 Aug 2018

    Great bit of business, what a profit!
    Wish the Jambos could sell a player for that amount!! Have to sell the whole club!!

  • Comment posted by Carntyne, at 10:06 1 Sep 2018

    Dembele is a decent player, but he doesn't get much game time due to recurring hamstring problems.
    For that reason his sale to Lyon for circa £20mill is a smart piece of business.

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