No Moussa Dembele transfer windfall for Celtic

Celtic may finally pick up a sell-on fee for Moussa Dembele but it won’t be anything like the windfall they received for Virgil van Dijk. 

Southampton paid Celtic £12m for the defender in 2015 then sold van Dijk on to Liverpool three years later for £75m with both Celtic and Groningen picking up a slice of that fee. 

Dembele joined Celtic in 2016 from Fulham for a UEFA agreed development fee of £500,000 and was quickly linked with a massive move to the EPL on the back of his explosive form for Celtic including two goals against Manchester City in the Champions League. 

Throughout his two seasons at Celtic the young Frenchman was constantly linked with EPL sides but when he did leave Glasgow it was back to France to join Lyon. 

Now, under the sub-headline ‘Lyon goal-getter Moussa Dembele may be available for as little as £25million’ the Daily Mail reports: 

Manchester United are monitoring Lyon striker Moussa Dembele as they look to revitalise their attack this summer. 

The Old Trafford club look certain to make changes to their forward line, with Edinson Cavani and Jesse Lingard out of contract. 

Marcus Rashford’s future is increasingly uncertain as he approaches the final year of his contract, while Cristiano Ronaldo and Anthony Martial are also contemplating exits. 

Dembele joined Celtic as a teenager in 2016 before moving to Lyon two years later. His current deal runs out in 2023, meaning Lyon risk losing him as a free agent if they cannot agree new terms. 

With Dembele sold by Celtic in August 2018 for £20m, Lyon look like making a £5m profit on the reported deal after four years of service. 

If Celtic have a 10% sell on clause they will get a further sum of £500,000 which isn’t likely to go far in the current transfer market, it was reported that Liam Scales cost the club £500,000 when he was signed from Shamrock Rovers last August. 

While not to be sniffed at there is no windfall likely from the sale of Dembele, of far greater relevance is winning this season’s SPFL Premiership which would bring in around £40m as well as push up income from sponsorship and commercial deals by putting the club back in the Champions League group stage for the first time since 2017.