Celtic insist that they would not be willing to sell West Ham target Moussa Dembele and hope he will remain at the club for the foreseeable future.
The 20-year-old French striker is a target for West Ham and has also been linked with top clubs in England and the continent after an outstanding start to his career at Celtic.
Brendan Rodgers swooped to acquire the youngster during the summer and has since seen Dembele weigh in with 19 goals in 36 appearances, including a brace in a Champions League draw with Manchester City.
Recent years have seen Celtic develop a reputation for cannily exploiting the market to bring in young talent before selling them at a sizeable markup – for instance Virgil van Dijk and Tottenham midfielder Victor Wanyama – yet assistant manager Chris Davies claimed even £20million could not tempt them to part with Dembele.
“The manager spoke pretty clearly on that situation previously,” Davies said.
“There has been no formal bid or anything like that. It is at the moment speculation but it's well below the valuation of the club.
“The message has been pretty clear from the manager, he spoke about it last month. For us, we know this is the best place for Moussa to develop and improve. He is still 20-years-old, he has development left in him.
The strikers West Ham have tried to sign since last summer
“Obviously, when you are doing well and especially when you are a striker, then there is going to be big money and talk thrown about a lot, especially during transfer windows. But we can't control that, we just have to concentrate on trying to develop him as a player.”
Standard Sport understands that Dembele is happy at Celtic and would not consider a move to West Ham in the January window despite the London side’s evident interest.
