MOUSSA Dembele can rediscover the goalscoring form that made him one of the hottest properties in European football last and boost his market value - if he remains at Celtic.

That was the view expressed today by Sylvain Ripoll, the France Under-21 manager who reckons the striker has now recovered from the injuries which sidelined him for several months last year and is poised to get back to his very best.

Dembele has been linked with an £20 million move to Barclays Premier League club Brighton - where manager Chris Hughton has publicly admitted that he is an admirer of the player – during the January transfer window.

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The 21-year-old has been unable to reach the heights he scaled after joining Celtic in a £500,000 transfer from English Championship club Fulham in 2016 in recent months.

He netted no fewer than 32 goals in all competitions and scored in Champions League group games against Manchester City and Borussia Moenchengladbach as well as in three consecutive meetings with Rangers.

English champions Chelsea were one of several major European clubs linked with the prodigiously talented young forward and were reported to be considering tabling a £40 million bid for him.

But this season Dembele has only found the target on eight occasions - leading to speculation that he is keen to move on to a club in the top flight down south and also that his club is keen to cash in on him.

However, Ripoll has defended the professionalism of his player and insisted the hamstring strain which he picked up back in April and then suffered a recurrence of in July has had a negative impact on his displays.

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The former Lorient manager stressed that he has seen his charge’s fitness and sharpness steadily improve during the France Under-21 side’s European Championship qualifying campaign this season.

Dembele failed to get his name on the scoresheet in his national team’s opening four Group Nine games – but he bagged a hat-trick in the 3-1 triumph over Slovenia away in November to keep his country on top of their section.

Ripoll is convinced that Celtic, who take on Zenit St. Petersburg in the last 32 of the Europa League next month, will be rewarded if they reject any bids which come in for the player this month.

“Moussa knows the problem is to do with injury,” he said. “At the end of last season and the beginning of this season he was out with injury. After that it is difficult to come back. He needs time to find his fitness.

“He missed a lot of pre-season and a lot of games at the beginning of the season. He didn’t play the same number of games as he did the season before. For me, that is the reason, the difficulty he had at the beginning of the season.

“But it has been obvious to me that he has come back to a good level now with the national team. In the last game we played with Slovenia he scored three goals. I saw a lot more quality there than I had two months before. Moussa is a great goalscorer. He is very good when the ball arrives in the penalty area.

“It’s logical he has not been at his very best. All players need to play games to get themselves fully fit. Moussa was out of the team for three months at the end of last season and then again at the start of this season. You have to be patient to get the best out of the player.”