Today, the Scottish media, in particular the Scottish Sun and Daily Record ran a story about Celtic taking a potential “financial blow” as Lyon look to sell Moussa Dembele in the January transfer window.
Reports suggest that Lyon would be willing to sell the French international for £30m with West Ham and Manchester United the clubs being linked with a potential move.
Dembele moved to Lyon from Celtic in a £20m move two seasons ago and with Celtic inserting a sell on clause in the deal and it is being reported if a £30m deal goes through, Celtic will receive £1m from the deal.
Strangely, this is being reported with a negative slant. Dembele was linked with a £60m move to Manchester United in the summer and if that move went through Celtic would have landed a £4m cash windfall. Granted, £4m is obviously a larger sum than £1m but surely the point of any sell on clause is that any cash received in any future deals is a bonus? Celtic made a huge £19.5m profit on Dembele and if the sell on clause is activated then this could potentially rise to over £23m. An excellent piece of business in anybody’s language.
Since signing for Lyon, Dembele has made a total of 95 appearances, scoring 44 goals which is an outstanding return including 20 goals last season for Lyon with two against Manchester City in last seasons Champions League quarter final. If West Ham and Manchester Utd are serious about the purchase of Dembele, does £30m sound like an offer Lyon would accept for a proven goal scorer that has been performing in Europe’s Elite competition for over 4 seasons?
We will see, but any future cash Celtic get from any Dembele deal is a positive story and should be reported as such.