From the off I wish to stress that this is not an attempt to jettison Celtic’s best player, it is merely an exercise in looking at the best course of action for Dembele to follow.
From Christmas, onwards it has been impossible to log on to the internet and avoid a menagerie of stories linking Moussa Dembele with a move to some of the richest clubs in the world. This week Tottenham have been decried as the inevitable winner of the supposed upcoming auction. But is a move to White Hart Lane really the best step to take on his journey to the top?
Initial reactions to the question will surely be one of bemusement. Spurs, after all, are THE great bottle-jobs. Perennial underachievers. The kind of club that, when playing Manchester United, produced Sir Alex Ferguson’s most amusing team talk, saying, “Lads, It’s Tottenham.”
If Moussa Dembele really is to climb to the summit of the game, is this the kind of club that are capable of matching his ambitions? Well, yeah, they are.
The current incarnation of Spurs isn’t the ‘bark and they’ll whimper’ variety that we saw all too often under the likes of Martin Jol, Andre Villas Boas or Harry Redknapp. Mauricio Pochettino has revolutionised the club. Spurs are now an undoubted member of the Premier League elite. The club no longer cower and flinch at the sight of the league’s biggest clubs, instead they emit a vibe of strength. The most impressive aspect of Pochettino’s side is how they have managed to blend brains and brawn. The entire spine of the side; Vertonghen, Alderweireld, Wanyama, Dembele and Kane are all physically imposing, yet are more than capable of some pretty complex technical displays.
Such a fine blend has seen Spurs become the Premier League’s second most consistent side this season, eclipsing the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and both Manchester Clubs. Indeed, if it were not for the relentless drive of Antonio Conte and his Chelsea side, we could very well be witnessing Tottenham lift their first domestic title in over fifty years. Spurs have the opportunity to make amends for their poor European displays by winning the FA Cup, the semi-final against Chelsea is next month.
You may point at Spurs’ Champions League foibles and suggest that Dembele could aim higher. However, Spurs this term have reminded me of Jürgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund and their initial foray into continental football. Dortmund flopped in their first campaign under the maniacal German, finishing bottom in a group containing Arsenal, Marseille and Olympiakos. The following season, after analysing where they went wrong (namely pressing too high up the pitch), Dortmund took Europe by storm, making it all the way to the final. While such a run may prove beyond Pochettino and his team, a massive upturn in their performances is not. Especially if they add Moussa Dembele to their ranks.
When you look at the top clubs and their striking options, again, Spurs seem to be the ideal destination. Stamford Bridge, a destination that has long been rumoured to be Dembele’s future home, has all too often been a graveyard for accomplished strikers; Hernan Crespo, Andriy Shevchenko, Radamel Falcao and Fernando Torres can all testify how tough life is at Chelsea. Indeed, it could be argued that in the Roman Abramovich era, only Didier Drogba and Diego Costa have truly flourished.
Manchester City are well stocked, as are Arsenal, if and when they have a fully fit squad. Manchester United are in need of another attacker considering Zlatan Ibrahimović’s age and the continued deterioration of Wayne Rooney. However, Jose Mourinho appears to have set his sights on more established players such as Romelu Lukaku and Antoine Griezmann.
Spurs have idolised Harry Kane, and much to the chagrin of many, the rangy Englishman has delivered more often than not. Sadly, for Spurs fans, Kane has shown a propensity to pick up debilitating injuries and his understudy, Vincent Jansen, has shown himself to be unsuited to the demands of the Premier League. Dembele has all the attributes needed to make a life for himself in the lone striker role, supplemented by the likes of Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen.
Everyone who follows Celtic knows how talented a player Dembele is and can see that he is destined to compete at the sharp end of the sport, but surely a move to one of the game’s true giants is beyond him at this point. Without denigrating Scottish Football too much, it is clear that the leap from the competition Dembele faces weekly to competing in the pressurised shirts of a Barcelona, Real Madrid or a Bayern Munich would be too vast.
The only Celtic player in recent memory to make such a leap was Henrik Larsson and he had a couple of important facets in his game that made this more manageable. For a start, Larsson was well into his thirties, had accumulated a vast amount of knowledge and accrued a level of maturity that can only come with facing your career’s mortality – something the Swede was forced to do after his leg break against Lyon.
Henrik Larsson had also played at a couple of World Cups and a European Championship, he was undoubtedly world-class, a tried and trusted player in continental football, someone who had cultivated a glowing reputation and admiration from some of the game’s finest players.
To ask Dembele to make the leap that Larsson had made, at such a precocious age, is surely too great a task.
Spurs, I believe, are a side on an upward trajectory that may very well end with them supplanting themselves amongst the cabal of clubs that routinely hoover-up the best talent that the planet can muster. At the very least White Hart Lane could act as an estuary between the physical rigors of Scottish Football and the elevated standards of Italy, Spain or Germany.
The ideal, of course, is that Moussa Dembele finds himself smitten with life at Celtic Park. That the board offer him a year-by-year increase in his wages, allowing the Club to grow at a commensal rate as their star asset. That Dembele and Rodgers’ continued presence acts like honey to a swarm of flies, drawing a steady drip of quality player to the club.
As unrealistic as it is, that is the dream.
BEN DELANEY
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