Celtic have described reports that they have accepted an £18m bid from Brighton for Moussa Dembele as nonsense.
Sky Sports ran with the story early this morning with other news outlets quickly giving it legs.
Sky is generally a reliable news source with strong contacts at every top flight club but they certainly aren’t immune from flying a kite.
Rather than run with the story The Sun contacted Celtic and while no on the record quote was given the denial seems fairly strong.
The newspaper reports: “SunSport Online understands the English Premier League outfit have NOT made an offer for Dembele.
“Senior Parkhead sources are surprised at the Christmas Day reports and dismissed them as “nonsense”.”
Celtic signed Dembele from Fulham on 1 July 2016 for a token development fee and were rewarded with 32 goals in his debut season.
Injuries have hampered his development this season but he did score away to Paris Saint Germain in the Champions League and also netted a hat-trick for the French u-21 side against Slovakia.
With a contract that runs until June 2020 Celtic still have the biggest say in the striker’s future plans.