Rangers have long since been linked with a move for Peterborough United’s Siriki Dembele, the versatile forward who is the brother of Celtic youngster Karamoko Dembele.
It isn’t just the fact that the Scotland eligible forward is available to discuss a pre-contract agreement in January but, at 25-years old, he is enjoying some of the best form of his career – at a decent level.
As usual though, Peterborough are in no mood to let him go cheaply, chairman, Darragh MacAnthony claiming that an offer of more than £7million plus add ons would give them a “decision to make” as reported by The Peterborough Telegraph:
“Siriki is a top end Championship talent, he could even play in the Premier League.
“He’s not in the shop window. We are not actively looking to sell him in January so any clubs who think it’s ‘bargain city’ as he only has six months left on his contract can think again. It wouldn’t be worth it to a club of our size with our owners.
“Josh King had six months left on his contract last January and he went for £10 million (Bournemouth to Everton). Now if a club offered us a premium price of say £7 million with add ons we would have a decision to make, but if he did go we have plans B and C in place to cope.
“Siriki has been phenomenal for us since he didn’t get a move in August. He’s put his head down, worked hard and now he’s reaping the benefits.
“He’s not the finished article yet as if he was he’d be playing for Barcelona. He’s still a young kid who’s had four seasons of regular professional football. If we lose him at the end of the season for nothing and he joins Real Madrid then great, he would go with our best wishes. If he decides to stay and sign a lucrative contract with us that’s great also.”
With four goals and two assists in 14 appearances, Dembele has adapted well to the step up in quality following promotion to the Championship, especially when you consider he is far from playing in a strong team, at Rangers he would have more opportunities to get on the ball at the right end of the park.
With Brandon Barker likely to leave in the near future, Dembele would be a cost efficient replacement and give Steven Gerrard another option in attack – it would also be a step in the right direction towards getting more players who meet UEFA’s home grown policy.
As with the summer window, we are unlikely to spend money in January, however, with players like Dembele, Joe Rothwell, Danilho Doekhi, Riechedly Bazoer and Zinedine Ferhat all available on pre-contract agreements, perhaps we won’t need to, if Ross Wilson can work his magic once again.