Brendan Rodgers has spoken about the speculation surrounding Celtic striker Moussa Dembele, revealing Arsenal are one of many sides linked.

The young striker’s goalscoring has exploded after he moved to Scotland from Fulham and is now attracting interest from the biggest clubs in Europe as a result. Dembele scored 32 goals in all competitions for Celtic last season and has been linked with Arsenal, Chelsea, West Ham and Marseille.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers is aware of the speculation and has said he doesn’t expect the player to leave this summer. “I counted the other day, Moussa has been linked with 10 clubs,” Rodgers said, as reported by the Express.

“It was Marseille the other day, I saw Arsenal one week, there was Paris Saint-Germain, there was Chelsea so there is nothing in it from our perspective. I felt if he progressed the way we thought and if he wanted to move any time it would be after the second year.

“There is no rush from Moussa’s perspective. He is a player that we really want to keep and if anything (an offer) did come in we would assess it.”

As far as Arsenal are concerned, they have way too many attackers at the club to add another one, signing Alexandre Lacazette for £52m, while having Olivier Giroud and Danny Welbeck as alternatives for their lone striking role. One of them would surely have to leave.

Nevertheless, Dembele is an exciting prospect and worth keeping an eye on. His goal record last season was very impressive, even if he was playing for a stacked team in a weak league.

He netted five goals for Celtic in the Champions League and enjoyed scoring against arch-rivals Rangers, suggestinng he’s capable of performing in the big games. For now, though, another year at Celtic might not be a bad thing.

The situation for Arsenal could be different next summer.