Celtic supporters will be surprised if their star man remains at the club beyond this summer
Odsonne Edouard has been linked with 26 clubs during his time at Celtic, and his spell in Scottish football is likely to end following the current campaign.
His hopes of a move to one of Europe’s biggest clubs, however, may have to be recalibrated.
That’s the opinion of football finance expert Kieran Maguire, who presents the Price of Football podcast.
He believes the financial situation in European football is less positive in recent years, and that this will have an impact on the options available to Celtic’s star man.
After an inconsistent spell, Edouard has returned to his best in recent weeks with six goals in as many games, with manager Neil Lennon recently referring to him as “a class player on top form” in comments reported by the Scottish Sun.
That takes the Frenchman’s overall tally to 82 goals in 157 games since joining Celtic in August 2017 from PSG.
The likes of Arsenal, Tottenham, West Ham, Real Madrid and Juventus have all been mentioned in connection with the 23-year-old, but Maguire is sceptical as to whether a club of such high standing will make their move this summer.
Speaking in the Glasgow Times, the academic and author said: “Who is going to buy Edouard?
“Where realistically will his market value be? The market across the vast majority of Europe just isn’t going to be there.
“French football will have no money this summer because their TV deal has disappeared. I don’t see a lot of money being spent in Spain or Italy.
“There will be some decent-sized clubs in the Bundesliga who may be interested in Edouard. Could he go to a club in England? Yes, he could. But what are the types of clubs that we are looking at?
“It is going to be bottom half of the Premier League if we are honest. There will be clubs who get promoted who will be interested.
“Crystal Palace have got 13 players out of contract. They are desperate for a striker. But there are a lot of strikers around.
“The problem that Celtic have is that because of the collapse of French football the players there are being sold at fire-sale prices.
“A French club will now be asking for £12m for a player who might have been going for £25m before.
“So what do Celtic do under those circumstances? They could end up being left with Edouard because they price him out of the market.”
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