Brendan Rodgers, the Celtic manager, still wants to sign a goalkeeper and an outfield player before the transfer window closes tonight.
Rodgers last night revealed he held talks with Moussa Dembélé to help the striker return to his best form — he scored one and made two in their 3-1 defeat of Hearts last night — and will now attempt to push through a couple of deadline day deals.
He would not discuss speculation that he wants Scott Bain, who is at Hibs on loan from Dundee. “We will have one in by the end of play. Bain is one of many who have been mentioned.” Asked if he wanted an outfield player too — he has already signed Marvin Compper, Lewis Morgan and Charly Musonda, who made his debut as a substitute last night — Rodgers said “ideally”.
Dembélé has looked off the pace during speculation about leaving this month but he was focused and threatening against Hearts. “We sat down with Moussa and had a chat over a couple of days,” said Rodgers. “We pulled together some video of his work and what his strengths are. Maybe through everything that’s gone on he’s come away a wee bit from what his strengths are, so it was just a case of looking at his game, breaking it down, and highlighting what kind of player he is. When he’s like that, pressing, playing on the last line and holding the ball up, he’s very hard to cope with.”
Odsonne Édouard, Dedryck Boyata and Dembélé scored in the first half, Kyle Lafferty pulled one back. “It was a very good performance,” Rodgers added.
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Hearts are anxious about Harry Cochrane who suffered a neck injury after Scott Brown landed on him. Levein drew encouragement from his team’s partial recovery. “They seemed to score with just about every chance in the first half. Half-time was interesting: would it be damage limitation or try to keep playing the same way? I asked them the question at half-time, ‘do you want to go again and have another go?’ We did well in the second half, got a goal and didn’t lose any more goals.”