According to an interview in Football Insider, former Leeds United ace Noel Whelan has claimed that Odsonne Edouard will be keen on a move to the Premier League this summer, even though the Bhoys are conducting talks to try and convince him to stay on. He further said that the club chose to go public with their attempts to keep him at Parkhead in an effort to appease the fans, who are unsurprisingly worried about the forward’s potential departure.
Clarifying that Celtic could lose Odsonne Edouard to the Premier League this season, Whelan said, “He is their main goalscorer and we saw when he wasn’t in the side how much they missed him. If they can get that done – fantastic. It would not be a bad thing to tie their top scorer down to a new deal for three to four years.
“However, is it to appease the fans? They can say they are working on a deal but if a big money offer comes in for him I guarantee you he will want to play in the Premier League. It is simple. If it is one of the top-six or if he has aspirations to play in the best and the hardest league in the world – the Premier League – he will want to do that.”
What Does Odsonne Edouard Add To This Celtic Side?
The forward has undoubtedly been the Celts’ most important player over the last couple of seasons and considering everything that’s going to be on the line in the Premiership next season, keeping him at the club is obviously of utmost importance. The Frenchman’s exploits up front have been unparalleled in the Scottish top-flight, and although Alfredo Morelos at Rangers has done a decent job too, he certainly hasn’t been anywhere near the level of the 22-year-old.
The fact that Edouard had once been a member of the PSG academy highlights just how good of a player he is, as the European giants wouldn’t take someone in if they didn’t believe that he had met the standards. Moreover, the striker’s market value has been consistently rising at an almost unbelievable rate over the last couple of seasons, and it’s now reached a point where some of the top clubs in Europe are thinking about moving for him.
Edouard, at 22, already boasts the attacking qualities required to be targeted by a top Premier League club, and that should be more than enough of an indication for Lennon to realise that selling this summer would be a recipe for disaster. The forward has represented France across all the youth levels, and his debut for the National team is gradually becoming an inevitability as well. Edouard’s numbers for Celtic this season have been nothing short of sublime, as he has notched up 21 goals and 12 assists from 27 Premiership outings.
Celtic Could Lose Odsonne Edouard To The Premier League: Why Lennon Mustn’t Let Him Leave
The Hoops will be going into the upcoming Premiership campaign hoping to achieve their tenth straight league title, and removing Edouard from the picture will surely have a negative effect. The fact that Steven Gerrard’s Rangers side are likely to go out of their way to stop the Celts’ title romp will be a concern for Neil Lennon too. Removing all of Edouard’s goals from this Celtic team’s record makes them look like nothing more than a mid-table club, and allowing the Frenchman to move to the Premier League in the summer would be like asking for trouble at a key time as well.
