Moussa Dembele has reopened one of Celtic’s more contested transfer sagas, and this time the regret is his own. In a new interview with the Daily Record, the striker says the Moussa Dembele Celtic exit remains the one part of his Glasgow career he would change, admitting the way it played out “didn’t end the way” it was supposed to.
Dembele arrived at Celtic from Fulham in a cut-price deal and left two years later for Lyon in a mega £20million move. In between he scored 26 goals in 55 appearances, seven of them against Rangers. The switch followed a public fallout with then manager Brendan Rodgers in the summer of 2018, a dispute Dembele aired on social media before Celtic responded with a statement of their own.
This is the second part of a three-part series building on our transfer reflection on Dembele’s time in Scotland, and this latest instalment goes further into what he says actually happened behind the scenes.
What Dembele says about the promise, the move and the regret
According to the Daily Record interview with Dembele, the plan for his Celtic career was agreed before he had even signed. He says Rodgers set it out clearly at a meeting in London, a month before he put pen to paper.
“when I first met Brendan in London, like one month before I signed for Celtic, the plan was really, really clear: Come here, work hard for two seasons and then, obviously, we will try to send you to a top-five league club.”
When the chance to leave finally arrived, though, Dembele says it did not feel like the move he had been promised. He felt the club had not held up its side of the arrangement.
“So, yeah, when the opportunity came, I was really disappointed because I felt like what’s been said hadn’t been delivered,” he said.
Asked what he would change about his time in Glasgow, Dembele points straight at the way he left.
“It didn’t end the way at Celtic it was supposed to. If I could change something, I would change that. The part where I went out.”
Why the Rodgers relationship no longer looks like a rift
Despite the frustration at the time, Dembele is adamant there is no bad blood left with Rodgers. He says enough time has passed for both men to move on from it.
“But, you know, things happened. Everything is behind us now. Brendan’s been a massive, massive part of my career. He made me improve a lot as a player and as a man.”
Dembele points to a recent meeting as proof the relationship has settled. He played against a Rodgers side a fortnight before speaking to the Daily Record, he says, and the game ended honours even. “I just played against him two weeks ago. We drew 2-2 against his team,” he said, adding that Rodgers simply “wished us good luck for the season.”
That tone is a long way from the summer of 2018. Dembele’s social media post at the height of the saga read, “A man without his word is nothing. A real man keeps his word,” a clear shot at the club as the Lyon move dragged on. Celtic answered through Rodgers, quoted in a club statement saying: “It is vital to make clear that we have never promised any player that he can leave the club at a particular time. It has never happened.”
What this means for Celtic supporters and the old debate
For supporters, the Moussa Dembele Celtic exit still carries weight because of what he gave the club before he left. That record explains why his sudden switch to Lyon felt like such a wrench at the time. Celtic’s rivalry with Rangers remains as sharp as ever, as shown by our derby preview and the latest derby defeat.
He admits he has lost touch with most of that Celtic dressing room. Only Jack Hendry and Broony have stayed in contact since he left, a reminder of how quickly a tight squad can drift apart once a big move happens.
What matters most for Celtic fans now is the tone of all this, not fresh detail. Dembele is not accusing anyone of bad faith, and he is not reopening a feud. He is simply saying the ending did not match the promise, and that it still nags at him. Rodgers, for his part, had already had his say through the club’s 2018 statement. Neither man seems interested in refighting that argument now. Both appear to have settled on the same conclusion: that time moved things on, even if the exit itself still rankles.
