With Chris Houghton non-committal when asked about his transfer approach for Dembele, it is clear that Brighton have been preparing a bid to take him from Celtic Park over the past few weeks.

Judging by his petulant response to being substituted at the weekend only went to confirm that the player’s head has been turned – as he looks to a return south of the boarder and a subsequent move to the Premier League.

Personally I think he could do better than a move to the Amex given his striking abilities, but as long as we are duly compensated then Rodgers by right will have a sizeable budget to get the squad ready for our Europa League campaign.

Given Dembele’s performances last season, I was quite surprised that we were in a position to keep him this campaign as he was linked heavily with a move – albeit to bigger clubs than Brighton.

It is fair to say his performances have dipped this season and the goals have dried up; therefore you do wonder whether we perhaps made a mistake not to cash in on him in the summer where his stock had risen dramatically with some of the Premier League big boys linked like Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United

A strike rate return of 8 in 21 games is hardly prolific and will mean we are in no position to command anywhere near the £40m+ fees that were muted a few months ago. I wonder whether Brendan should convince him to get his head down, get his goalscoring boots back on to enable him to guarantee a bigger move in the summer – not to mention provide us with a bigger transfer fee to reinvest?

So what should we do with Dembele and is it a case of stick or twist? Whilst it isn’t great to have a player within the ranks that is unhappy, I do wonder if we hold onto him and puts it a strong 2nd half of the season then we will be in a much stronger position in commanding a sizeable fee and a massive return on what we paid Fulham for him? Should Celtic simply take the money and run?