Lyon director’s transfer admission hands Celtic cash boost

Celtic have been handed a major cash boost following Lyon director of football’s transfer admission after their Champions League exit.

Celtic have been linked with a number of stars in the current transfer window which has left fans questioning how they’ll fund these moves without selling someone. There are fears that Odsonne Edouard could be let go if a huge big comes in but that might not be necessary anymore following the Moussa Dembele transfer admission from Lyon’s director of football, Juninho.

The 24-year-old French striker starred for Celtic from 2016 to 2018, when he would make 94 appearances for the Hoops with 51 goals to his name. A large part of the side’s success in the 2017 and 2018 seasons, he helped the club to their league titles in both years. Moussa even recorded back-to-back hat tricks in SPFL and Scottish Cup play in February 2017, leading to him making PFA Scotland’s Team of the Year and winning their Goal of the Year award in 2017.

After being sold to Lyon in 2018 for £18 million his production continued, scoring 44 goals in 91 appearances the past two seasons. But with the club losing in the UCL semi-finals this week to Bayern Munich and finishing 7th in Ligue One, they are looking to offload the young Frenchman. Luckily for the Hoops, a 10% sell-on fee was agreed upon with his sale to Lyon, which could net quite a bit for the club.

As reported by the Daily Record, Juninho said:

"“If we continue the way we have, we will be back in the Champions League very soon.“Players will be leaving, like Houssem Aouar and Moussa Dembele, but I’m not worried.“We want to secure Champions League football next season.”"

Lyon had reportedly fielded interest from English-side Chelsea as recently as January for Dembele, with the offer allegedly sitting around £35 million.

At 24 years old, and with his performance only continuing to improve, including a decisive brace against Manchester City in the UCL quarter-finals, he could catch a much higher transfer fee than the previously alleged £35 million, with some transfer sites listing it as high as £45 million and some reports even at £60 million.

Lyon manager Rudi Garcia has been unable to have Dembele appear as often as the striker desires, which could be another reason behind the club looking to offload him and make up for their cash shortfalls next season without Champions League football.