With news of Villarreal interest, former Celtic star Stiliyan Petrov says that Moussa Dembele could leave the club for a new challenge.
Stiliyan Petrov thinks that a lack of challenge for young players at Celtic could end up seeing them leaving the club in order to achieve it.
The former Bhoys midfielder specifically referred to Moussa Dembele, who has impressed since joining from Fulham in 2016 for £500,000 (Express), scoring 47 goals in 85 games to date.
As a result the 21-year-old has been linked with several exits from Parkhead, with the latest coming from Villarreal as the Express reports the Spanish club are preparing a £15m offer for Dembele.
And if what Petrov says is true, then the striker could well be tempted by a switch to La Liga in order to test himself more than he currently is in the Scottish Premiership.
“Celtic have a lot of young, exciting players. These players would like to improve and be challenged,” the 38-yer-old was quoted by the Daily Mail.
“If they are not challenged here, if they don’t have someone to push them, then they will go. Can you blame them? No.
“If someone comes for Moussa Dembele and he is not being challenged here then he will move on.”
Petrov spent seven years with the Hoops between 1999 and 2006, during a time when they reached the UEFA Cup final with the likes of Henrik Larsson in the team.
Yet the Bulgarian thinks that the quality in Scottish football has dropped so much that someone like Larsson would no longer stick around.
This should come as a worrying assessment for Celtic, who are keen to take the next step in Europe but it seems the lack of competition domestically is actually holding them back in that regard.
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