Celtic winger Karamoko Dembele has not signed a new contract, and with his current deal having expired at the end of last month, he is now effectively a free agent.
The teenager has been tipped for big things but he never quite made the breakthrough into the first team, leaving supporters on Twitter to debate where things went wrong:
Disgraceful if we’ve let him go. Should be ahead of Forrest in this team. Another talent wasted.
— Simon (@Simon64580309) May 31, 2022
Many young footballers show so much promise at an early age but never fulfill their potential,while others improve and come good when a bit older.
It will be interesting to see which applies to him.
I wish him well for his future career ☘️💚— Gerry M 🏴🇺🇦☘️🌹#Refugees Welcome. (@deedondeveron) May 31, 2022
From what I have seen the bhoy reminds me of musonda. Definitely talented with the ball, but not talented enough to make up for his lack of strength/size.
— Searriagh (@searriagh67) May 31, 2022
I saw him only a few months ago in a Glasgow Cup match he played in at Airdrie, was absolutely outstanding and at times impossible to mark, despite that he still looked like a kid playing in an adults game when we talk about his sheer size or lack of it
— ninesecondmaradona (@ninesecondmara1) May 31, 2022
The injury last preseason really messed up any chance he had of making a decent impact I think. Shame that it’s come to this after all the hype.
— Kev Ainslie (@KA1806) May 31, 2022
I never seen anything from him – zilch – good luck to the lad wherever he goes, his time at Celtic is over 🍀
— JB 🏴 🤝 🇺🇦 (@stgriswalds) May 31, 2022
We never know what goes on behind the scenes so always difficult to judge. From the outside I think we could’ve handled it better. If you have such a mercurial young talent, he needs game time (here or loan) to develop that. He’s a good young player who’ll do well somewhere
— Steven Clark (@hotbaws1) May 31, 2022
We are not around training, Ange sees him every day, if he isn’t seeing enough I trust in Ange if he is indeed letting him leave on a free
— wc2731 (@wc2731) May 31, 2022
Would have given him a year to come good
— Smithy (@Smithy85943266) May 31, 2022
another “wonder kid” who doesnt make the step up. Football is packed with them
— notthebus (@Notthebus) May 31, 2022
There is no doubt that the ankle injury that Dembele suffered in preseason hampered his ability to impress manager Ange Postecoglou, following the Australian’s arrival last summer.
However, the 19-year-old has been available for selection since the start of February and yet, the forward only managed 20 minutes of action in total for the first team, with cameos against St Mirren in the league and versus Dundee United in the Scottish Cup.
It doesn’t seem as if Dembele did enough to convince Postecoglou that he deserved to have his stay at Parkhead extended. It remains to be seen which club will look to snap him up.
