Celtic boss Neil Lennon has disclosed to Sky Sports why the club turned down the chance to let Karamoko Dembele leave the club on a loan deal in the January transfer window.
The Daily Record had reported on Thursday that Gillingham had tried to sign the player on loan for the rest of the season, but the Hoops had rejected the offer.
Now Lennon has given the reasons why.
“They made an enquiry about it and it was turned down” Lennon said, as quoted by Sky Sports.
“The best place for him”
“I think this is the best place for him. We know of his capabilities, we know of his talent. We are very excited about him, but he is just going to turn 17 soon. We have to protect him, and we have a duty of care with him in terms of his development, but we want it here.”
Lennon’s comments are sensible. There is no point in loaning out the player. It benefits him more to spend his days leaning at Celtic.
Might not feature that often in title race
It will be interesting to see how often the player features for Celtic for the rest of this season. Neil Lennon obviously rates him, but he might not play that often in the middle of a close title race.
Perhaps we will see him feature towards the end of games, when the Hoops are comfortably winning a game, like he did during the recent win over Ross County.
As Lennon points out, the player is not yet 17. The Hoops do need to protect him, and he is better off doing that at Celtic than at a League One side.
Dembele can progress in his own time with the Hoops, and not have to worry about playing every week.
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