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Opinion

Bizarre Celtic fans reasoning on why Edouard isn’t interested in signing for Newcastle United or Leicester

4 years ago
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Celtic fans are panicking about losing their star player.

Odsonne Edouard has 46 goals in 59 league starts (plus 22 sub appearances) for Celtic and that includes 22 in 25 starts this season, as he improves year on year.

Newcastle United have been linked with the 22 year old a number of times and now reports over the weekend have claimed he is the priority signing for NUFC and Leicester City are also keen on the French Under 21 international, a transfer valuation of around £30m carried in many reports.

When these reports were published over the weekend I was looking online and interested/amused to read the reaction of Celtic fans, perfectly summed up by the comments below from a Celtic fan website The Celtic Star.

The natural outcome when the odd player looks potentially far too good for the lowly Scottish Premier League and appears to stand a chance at a higher level, is for him to move on to a club at that higher level. Most usually to the Premier League or one of the other stronger European leagues, or even occasionally to the Championship.

In recent years Celtic fans have seen Tierney move to Arsenal and Dembele to Lyon, whilst Southampton have become regulars at mining the lowly Scottish league in taking Van Dijk, Wanyama and Forster down south. It is the food chain, with the likes of then Spurs and Liverpool in turn taking Wanyama and Van Dijk off the Saints, whilst Fraser Forster in the end flopped at Southampton and ended up back with Celtic in order to get regular football at a lower level.

Despite the clear evidence of the above, Celtic fans are still in denial. We understand they love their club and think it is the ‘best’, the same as we all do with our own, but it is not the real world.

Just like ambitious players having to leave the likes of Celtic/Scotland, it is the same in similarly lower level leagues such as Belgium, the MLS and Holland, that is why Newcastle are able to bring in the likes of Mitrovic, Almiron and Wijnaldum. Even stronger leagues than the Scottish Premier, such as France, have seen Newcastle attract the likes of Saint-Maximin and many others previously.

They come for the far higher level of competition week in week out, the far higher level profile of the English Premier, plus of course the money.

That is why Southampton can regularly take Celtic’s best players off them and indeed why Newcastle can if they make a move for Edouard, even more so if an ambitious club like Leicester move for the 22 year old striker.

The Celtic fans talk of winning trophies and regular European football but their domestic competitions, especially the league, are a walkover, when/if this season is completed it will be nine titles in a row for them, in the same time period five different clubs will have won the Premier League in England

As for Europe, the lack of money across the border means that Celtic can’t compete in any way in the Champions League. Outside of Scotland, people aren’t interested in their league and so minimal TV money comes in, with football fans in other countries having zero interest in paying to watch it. Contrasted with the English Premier League which has become the world league in terms of people wanting to watch and the money that flows from that.

These last two attempts have seen Celtic not even reach the Champions League group stage, failing in the qualifiers, whilst the last 12 attempts only once have they got past the group stage.

Contrast that with Leicester City who in their one Champions League campaign reached the quarter finals in 2017 and were unlucky not to make the semis.

I don’t know if Edouard is the answer for Newcastle and whether he can/could cope with the (English) Premier League but what I do know is that if Newcastle did make a move (and no other Premier League clubs were seriously competing…), the striker would be down at St James Park like a shot.

It is just the way that it is and as things stand at NUFC, no doubt Mike Ashley would be selling the move to him based on the dream of Edouard then moving on again to a Man Utd or Arsenal (or Leicester…) in  a couple of years time and he (Ashley) doubling his money, or better.

The Celtic Star comment piece:

‘Odsonne Edouard’s not going give up European Football and winning trophies to sign for Newcastle United.

Yesterday it was Brendan Rodgers who was in the news with apparent summer plans to ask for 40% off the asking price to lure Edouard to Leicester City for just £30million. Edouard in considering the opportunity for ten seconds would immediately recall the honesty, loyalty and integrity shown by his former boss and the treatment dished out to his pal and fellow country Moussa Dembele.

And while Leicester City did win the Premier League pre-Rodgers, that is unlikely to happen again, so the occasional qualification for European football is a possibility but certainly not a given.

If you thought about this, say over the course of a three year stay in the East Midlands, you’d be lucky to get one season in Europe and very lucky indeed if the boss who’d brought you there didn’t bolt at the first bigger club opportunity that came his way.

And you could even end up down at the bottom of the league battling with Newcastle Utd to save your Premier League status.

Odsonne Edouard is better than all that and thankfully he knows it himself.’

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