Be prepared for him to leave sooner rather than later.
That seemed to be the message that former Scotland and Rangers defender Alan Hutton wanted to get across to Celtic fans when talking about the future of top scorer this season Odsonne Edouard.
Speaking to Football Insider, Hutton said that he wouldn’t expect the young Frenchman to be too eager to sign a new deal at the club, because he’d rather be focusing on a big money move away rather than trying to advance his career at Celtic Park:
“If you sign a long-term deal, when it comes to summer it makes everything that little bit harder. He’s going to demand a massive fee as it is and Edouard and his team will be holding off until the summer to see exactly what comes in to see what the offers are before taking anything further.”
This, of course, follows on from another report from Football Insider, in which they stated that Edouard was going to bide his time when it came to a new deal and that he was “reluctant” to get serious in negotiations.
In my mind, if these reports are true, then we need to jettison him at the earliest possible opportunity, which is of course assuming the transfer window stays the same amidst the Coronavirus pandemic, but even if there are some tweaks, he should be gone on the first day.
Should the club move on from Edouard?
Yes
No
If he is showing even the slightest bit of hesitancy, then that means he isn’t fully committed to the club, and we need to be looking at cashing in on him and moving on to the next player. With a Transfermarkt value of £13.5m, that should give us plenty of money to be able to bring in another quality player. Taking a look at previous SPL transfer records, you could easily bring in one or two top-flight quality players for that kind of money.
It’s easy just to cut him loose than have him constantly thinking about his next move and have it affecting his performances.