MOUSSA Dembele last night gave Celtic fans an emphatic signal that he was staying in Glasgow following reports of a possible Chelsea offer.
The striker tweeted a photo of Leonardo DiCaprio delivering the “I’m not leaving” speech from the Wolf of Wall Street film, with himself in a similar pose above.
The 20-year-old captioned it “What else?” and included several green hearts and four-leaf clovers to further emphasise his commitment to Celtic.
Reports had claimed Chelsea were considering a £30million-plus offer in the final 24 hours of the transfer window and Dembele was pictured on a flight to London early on deadline day. But it soon emerged he was on his way for a scan on a knee injury. Chelsea had made a far more meaningful attempt to sign Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon in the final week of the window but Hoops manager Brendan Rodgers consistently insisted neither player would leave in January.
Erik Svaitchenko was also linked with a move away from Celtic Park but he was still in Glasgow come the evening, while out-of-favour Nadir Ciftci and Efe Ambrose remained at Parkhead as the deadline approached.
Inverness, Kilmarnock and Dundee were all busy bringing in new additions and Partick Thistle experienced some unexpected late joy.
Rangers sold goalkeeper Matt Gilks to Wigan for an undisclosed fee 24 hours after his replacement, Jak Alnwick, arrived from Port Vale in a £250,000 deal. But reported target Reece Oxford joined Reading on loan from West Ham.
Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes confirmed Cardiff had failed with a third offer for Jonny Hayes worth £600,000.
McInnes said: “There was a bid in for Jonny on Friday night but it wasn’t anywhere near the level that we would have expected to take Jonny Hayes or any of our better players.”
Caley Thistle secured a return for striker Billy McKay, who netted 62 goals in his first spell at the club. Wigan forward McKay ended a loan spell at Oldham to join Inverness until the end of the season and Celtic defender Jamie McCart also signed on a temporary deal. Lonsana Doumbouya and Ali Sutherland departed, the former to join Austrian top-flight side SKN St Polten.
Kilmarnock also completed two loan deals – bringing in Conor Sammon from Hearts six years after he left Rugby Park for Wigan, and signing 19-year-old Charlton forward Josh Umerah. Scott Boyd signed an 18-month contract after making his loan move from Ross County a longer-term arrangement.
There was a Dutch tinge to all of Dundee’s dealings. They signed former Motherwell forward Henrik Ojamaa on loan from Go Ahead Eagles, loaned Dutch forward Yordi Teijsse to German side Wuppertaler SV, and signed 23-year-old Dutch midfielder Marc Klok, formerly of Ross County, from Oldham.
Partick Thistle allowed 21-year-old midfielder Declan McDaid to join Ayr but secured 24-year-old Crawley winger Jason Banton on loan in the evening.
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