Former Celtic manager John Barnes has today been praising Odsonne Edouard, and believes the Hoops would sell him in the summer.
Edouard is attracting praise from all quarters. He’s already fired home 11 goals in 20 appearances for Celtic this season. That’s not including his stunning nine goals in four games for France under-21s either.
Predictably, this has led to plenty of speculation about his future. Edouard has been linked with several top European clubs including Borussia Dortmund and Napoli respectively (Daily Mail).
And former manager and England international Barnes believes the time will be right to sell Eddy in the summer. Speaking in the Daily Record, here’s his opinion on the matter
“Edouard’s a good young player, and as much as players might like playing for clubs like Celtic or Rangers, for their career they will want to move on.
“Celtic will be open to selling for £20million to £30m. With the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Moussa Dembele staying at Celtic for a short while before moving on to bigger clubs, Edouard will be given a similar opportunity next summer.”
Barnes seems certain, but let’s get January out of the way first
Celtic have still to prove that they aren’t interested in selling Edouard in January. That’s the first concern for Hoops supporters. We need the board to back the football side of things at the club in this regard.
However, it’s also fair to say that Edouard leaving in a couple of months is unrealistic. Celtic won’t be sending out any feelers to clubs looking to buy him. Celtic are also on a positive journey this season. Progression to the Europa League last-32 would also give Edouard a fine reason to stay at the club.
Come the summer, it’s a different matter entirely. Celtic will be rebuilding certain areas of their squad once again. It would be a much more convenient time for everyone if that’s when Eddy left. But we’ll still look to keep our best players for as long as we can.
It’s interesting to hear Barnes saying that Celtic wouldn’t accept less than £20million. And it will be extremely interesting to see if that’s how the club goes about its business too.
Celtic have done a terrific job in cranking up the fees for their top stars. They’ll be looking to continue that if there is any genuine interest or offers for our star-man over the summer.
And if he continues in the same manner that he has done over the first few months of the season, it would take a brave fan to bet that there won’t be.
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