John Hartson floats unexpected Edouard scenario

John Hartson believes that there is a possibility that Odsonne Edouard could still be a Celtic player next season.

The striker has one season left to run on his contract and is believed to be a transfer target for Arsenal, Brighton and Leicester City.

While Virgil van Dijk and Victor Wanyama left Celtic after just two seasons Edouard has spent twice as long at Celtic and has never given any indication of angling for a move out of the club.

Celtic could pick up between £15-20m for the striker this summer but without signing a new contract he could leave for nothing in 12 months time.

Discussing Edouard on Go Radio, the Daily Record reports Hartson saying:

There’s almost a school of thought and expectancy from everyone – and I mean everyone – that he’s going.

The club might well not get the right transfer fee for him, somebody’s got to come in and pay the money Celtic value him at. I actually know that Edouard loves playing for Celtic. He really, really does.

Everybody seems to think – and I’m the worst culprit for it, I’ve been saying Edouard will go – what’s he worth? What’s he going to go for? But, listen, it wouldn’t be beyond all reason if he was to stay.

What if Eddie Howe comes and is saying to the owners, ‘look, I want to come and by the way I love this kid we’ve got, this centre-forward Edouard. I would love to keep him, give me half an hour with him’?

We don’t know these things. There is this thought process that he will leave but he said today he can’t wait to play in front of the fans again.

Edouard will be involved at the u-21 European Championships next week and is likely to be involved in the Olympic Games which overlap between July and August.

Involvement in the Olympics would rule him out of Celtic’s first matches of next season with the opening Champions League qualifier being played on July 20/21 and 27/28.