Not many people (especially 20-year-olds) have captured the imagination of the Celtic fans quite like Moussa Dembele has this season. His 32 goals and bids of £40million from the likes of Chelsea mean he is the obvious shout as to who Celtic’s best player is right now.
There is little doubt that the young French striker will go on to be a good deal better than anything else Celtic have at their disposal as of now but all in all, has he really been their very best player during the current campaign? Maybe, just maybe he has, but it’s a very close call.
Kieran Tierney is another player who is worth a shout but much like Dembele, is escalating value in the transfer market is based more on potential than it is on current ability and so he would be worthy of being called Celtic’s best player this season. Midfield duo Scott Brown and Stuart Armstrong have gone about their business and gone about it very well (in entirely different ways) but again fall short of being the club’s most valuable.
Taking everything into consideration a strong argument can be made that SCOTT SINCLAIR has contributed more to Celtic’s cause than Dembele or anyone else has over the course of the whole season. Dembele has netted 17 goals in 29 Premiership appearances. Great stuff for a 20-year-old, but potential doesn’t win more games and so Sinclair’s 21 in 32 from wider and deeper positions reads very impressively.
Sinclair is charged with supplying a killer pass as well as goals a lot more than Dembele is and is still outscoring him – at least domestically. If Dembele gets another year here, he’ll comfortably outscore Sinclair and will be worth an absolute fortune but for now, Sinclair gets our vote.
25 goals and 11 assists in 39 domestic games from slightly wider and deeper positions than Dembele, is remarkable. Yes, he has stepped down a level, but so has Dembele in theory and so let’s deal with what we see. In our opinion, it doesn’t have to be a forward player who wins this award, as we cannot get away from the fact that regardless of how good a defence is, you will not win trophies without finishing power and Sinclair’s finishing has been better than anyone else’s at Celtic this season.
The only negative against Sinclair this season is his output in the Champion’s League. But that campaign is well behind them and it’s all about finishing the domestic season unbeaten and winning the treble for Brendan Rodgers. To that end, nobody has contributed more.