Scottish Premiership champions Celtic are facing a big challenge if they want to keep Odsonne Edouard from moving to the Premier League.
Alan Hutton has put his Rangers allegiance aside to pay tribute to Celtic striker Odsonne Edouard, telling talkSPORT that the prolific Frenchman has the potential to reach the very top of the game.
Eyebrows were raised when The Hoops paid a club-record £9 million to make the former PSG youngster their most expensive player ever in the summer of 2018. But no-one is questioning that price-tag now with Edouard going from third-choice striker to one of Europe’s hottest centre-forwards in the space of two years.
23 goals and 17 assists this season tell their own story, though the statistics don’t often do Edouard justice.
At his best, the France U21 international is all-but unplayable, slaloming through challenges like a young Henrik Larsson while replacing Moussa Dembele as Celtic’s most influential striker since the legendary Swede was banging in the goals in green and white.
“He’s an unbelievable player, he’s top, top class,” Hutton, who spent six years on the other side of the Glasgow divide, told Jim White (19 February, 12.20am).
“(Definitely (he can play in the Premier League) He’s got all the attributes to be a top player. He holds the ball up well, he’s strong; what else do you need from a striker?
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the big clubs were looking at him.”
Hutton’s prediction already appears to have come true. According to The Mail, Arsenal are casting admiring glances in the direction of a £30 million-rated centre-forward, while the likes of Tottenham Hotspur, Leicester City, Chelsea and Manchester United have also been linked.
Worryingly for Celtic, it seems that Edouard is quickly outgrowing the relatively small pond that is Scottish football.
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