Community Hoddle of Coffee for September 29: on Twossa Dembele and Tottenham strikers

I didn’t watch the Champions League match between Celtic and Manchester City yesterday thanks to the day job, but I did watch the highlights and saw that Moussa (“Twossa”) Dembele scored two goals as Celtic earned a 3-3 home draw against the current Premier League leaders.

In the immediate aftermath, Spurs social media was righteously indignant about why Spurs didn’t buy Dembele when they had the chance. If you recall, Spurs were reportedly very close to signing Twossa in January as Harry Kane’s primary backup, only for them to drop their interest close to signing day. Dembele was only going to cost £6m, but Fulham insisted that he remain at the Cottagers on loan until the end of the season. Twossa ended up leaving on a free transfer to Celtic, where he’s their first choice striker. He’s probably going to be a star for someone.

That tidbit, combined with Vincent Janssen’s perceived slow start this season, has led to some discontent on the internet. Which is dumb. While Dembele can be perceived as a miss to some, it became clear that Twossa wanted to go to a club where he could play as many games as possible. Celtic isn’t a great club, but they’re consistently in the Champions League, and Dembele can be top banana there. He gets higher wages than he would as a backup at Spurs or another Premier League club, and if he’s as good as what everyone thinks he’s going to be, he’ll end up making a big money move back to England within a year or so. It’s a good move for him. It’s also probably a good move for Fulham, if they included a sell-on clause.

The flip side of that argument is equally dumb: that Vincent Janssen is somehow the second coming of Roberto Soldado and we should’ve signed Dembele. We’ve already dissected that one to death; suffice it to say that there’s a LONG way to go before we should label any Spurs player a bust, especially in their first season at the club.

No links today as it’s a Community Hoddle. Put your links in the comments, and happy Thursday!