Moussa Dembele will NOT be leaving Celtic in January dealing a blow to Manchester United and Chelsea
Brendan Rodgers insists his star striker is staying put in the New Year despite huge interest from the Premier League
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CELTIC striker Moussa Dembele will be going nowhere in January according to Brendan Rodgers.
The French youngster has hit the ground running in Scotland and his stand-out form has led to interest from Manchester United and Chelsea.
The two Premier League giants have been strongly linked to the 20-year-old who has scored 17 goals in 29 appearances since leaving Fulham for £500,000 in the summer.
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Rodgers is confident that it is only a matter of time before his young striker leaves Celtic Park for the heights of the English top flight - following in the footsteps of Fraser Forster, Victor Wanyama and Virgil van Dijk.
The striker's stock will have dramatically risen after scoring four goals in the Champions League group stages, including a memorable brace in the 3-3 draw at home to Manchester City.
But despite Rodgers admitting that he sees the Dembele's future away from the Scottish Premier League, he does think he will move in the next transfer window.
Rodgers told Talksport: “No, I don’t think it will be January.
"At Celtic, you know how it is. We know how it is. If we get a really talented player there’s probably a cycle of a couple of years with them.
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“You look at the examples of Wanyama, Van Dijk, and Ki - they have all come up here and it’s a great platform for them to demonstrate their qualities but then the likelihood is they get a better offer, financially, and they move down south.
“With Moussa, I think that was always going to be the case. The difference now with Celtic is that Moussa doesn’t need to go to, with all due respect, to a bottom-end Premier League team, because he’s playing for a big club in front of 60,000 fans a week.";
Rodgers revealed Dembele had a handful of more lucrative offers before choosing to join Celtic where he is rumoured to be on just £15,000 a week.
And the Northern Irishman feels his move to Scotland was a great decision and that a club like Celtic with a huge fan base and consistent first-team football is perfect for his development.
But the longer that he stays and shows his huge array of talents at Celtic, the more big-money moves that will be placed on the table from Premier League and potentially La Liga.
Rodgers said: “Moussa and his agent made a great career move coming here. He could have gone somewhere else for a lot more money, but he’s very young, he’s still improving, and he wanted that experience to go away and develop but also do it in a pressurised situation.
“There is great expectation at Celtic. We are expected to win every game and expected to win trophies, so it’s a great opportunity for him here. I enjoy that element of management working with young players and trying to help them improve.
"It is a problem now in the game and people say that there is not enough talent in Britain. There is talent but the money at times distorts that reality for younger players.
"They lose sight of the fact years ago it was all about playing and winning things and performing and having games under your belt. The financial rewards are given so quickly these days.
"The clever players and the clever agents put their players on a pathway to improve themselves as players knowing that if they perform the rewards will come."