Transfer Centre

Dermot Desmond: 'Celtic can keep Moussa Dembele'

By Matt Law, Football Editor | 05 October 2016

Celtic majority shareholder Dermot Desmond denies that the Scottish champions will not be able to keep hold of in-demand Moussa Dembele.

Celtic majority shareholder Dermot Desmond has insisted that the Scottish champions have the ability to keep hold of their best players amid talk of interest in Moussa Dembele.

The 20-year-old has scored 12 times in 16 appearances for Celtic this season, including twice in last week's 3-3 draw with Manchester City in the group stages of the Champions League.

Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich have all been credited with an interest in the Frenchman, but Desmond is 'hopeful' that Celtic will be able to resist bids for the former Fulham youngster.

"I think so. Hopefully we can. They're a team, they're together, we don't need to sell any players," Desmond told reporters.

"Hopefully we can retain him but again our job is to have players that are wanted by other clubs in the Premier League and elsewhere. That will be an indication of the quality of footballers that we have."

Dembele was strongly linked with a move to the Premier League before joining Brendan Rodgers at Celtic.