Marseilles felt certain that they had Moussa Dembele lined up for a return to France during the summer.
The 1993 Champions League winners have gone through some tough times recently but felt that their luck was about to change when the young Fulham striker’s contract was running out.
A £500,000 development fee to the Londoners would have sealed the deal but late in the day Dembele decided that Celtic was a better option.
Celtic had been monitoring the situation since January but it seems that the arrival of Brendan Rodgers and the greater prospect of Champions League football convinced the player to snub Marseilles and head to Glasgow.
Franck Passi was caretaker manager at Marseilles from April until October this year and revealed on Saturday that he felt that he had Dembele lined up as a summer signing.
Passi was a guest of the Telefoot channel on Saturday as Dembele picked up his u-21 player of the year award and revealed that he thought that Dembele was heading for the south of France during the summer.
“I wanted Dembele to come to Marseille,” The Sun reported Passi saying. “We were looking for a replacement for Michy Batshuayi, and among all the players we had mentioned there was Moussa.
“I contacted his agent and he was very close to coming to Marseille. Then, finally, it did not happen,?sometimes during transfers, things do not happen.”
Marseilles are currently sitting in sixth place in Ligue 1, 16 points behind leaders Nice.
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