Tom Boyd believes that Moussa Dembele will be best served by staying at Celtic for at least another couple of seasons.

The former Celtic captain has watched the progression of the striker this term – Dembele scored 32 goals in 46 games for the club – and with a host of clubs both domestic and European keeping tabs on the 20-year-old, it seems inevitable that a bid will come this summer for him.

AC Milan are the latest team to be linked with the striker, while Chelsea, Seville, Borussia Dortmund, and Olympic Marseille all keen on Dembele, who will play on Thursday for the French under-23 side.

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“I would say he could stay here for at least another few years,” said Boyd. “You have got everything here that you need – what kind of songs are they going to sing over in Milan about him?

“It is a great club and he is only a young boy. He still needs a few years to develop. I don’t know where Milan are at the moment and who they have up front but it might be that he still needs a bit of experience to fit in there. Would he be sitting on the bench? I don’t know.

“But he is playing here, he has good competition with a player who scored 40 goals the season before last – and I think it helped Dembele – to have someone there giving him a wee push – so I would rather he stayed here to develop.

“He still has a lot to learn as have a lot of the players, most of whom have youth on their side. You want them in here and you just have to look at how Brendan has brought him on. It is the right environment here to help players and although I think he will eventually go, hopefully it is not in the near future.”

Meanwhile, Boyd also believes that the six Celtic players expected to feature for Scotland against England at Hampden can only help Gordon Strachan’s cause.

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Scotland desperately need something from the game to keep alive any chance of qualification for the Fifa World Cup and the winning mentality within the Parkhead crop of Scott Brown, Stuart Armstrong, James Forrest, Leigh Griffiths, Craig Gordon and Kieran Tierney is one that Boyd expects can enhance Scotland.

"You have quite a lot of Celtic players who are playing to the top of their form,” he said.

"They have had a season to remember in many ways and you would want that to impact the Scotland team and run off on the rest of the players.

"What it does say is that these players are playing at the top of their level.

"Managers tend to stick by the tried and tested and trusted personnel but the Celtic players in the side that will feel confident right now.

"They are the ones that you can maybe base your team around.

"I know Gordon will have his own ideas on the opposition that he is facing.

"I would certainly hope that there will be a few Celtic players in the Scotland side to face England.”

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Boyd was part of the Scotland squad at Euro 96 who lost to England, the game which became infamous for Paul Gascoigne’s goal celebration. Gary McAllister missed a penalty that day at Wembley at a point in the game when Scotland trailed by just one goal and England were hanging on by their fingertips with 12 minutes of time remaining.

Self-proclaimed psychic/illusionist Uri Geller hovered above Wembley Stadium in a helicopter on the day the Auld Enemy went head-to-head in the group stage of Euro 96.

He also claimed credit for England’s 2-0 win, insisting it was his powers of the mind which forced the ball to move a fraction of an inch just as McAllister pulled the trigger.

Geller has claimed he will even things up this time around.

“I can’t publish what I want to say about him,” said Boyd in reference to Geller. “It was bad enough at the time. The ball moved but it was the weight of the ball and a few blades of grass rather than his mumbo-jumbo. Hopefully he will come and help us this time.

"It [penalty miss] was one of those what if's and unfortunate moments.

"We have seen plenty of them in a Scotland jersey down through the years. Hopefully this will be a different case and we will be talking about how we did it.

"We have had a lot of hard luck stories in a lot of games and we don't want this to be another one. Scotland were the dominant team right up until Gary missed the penalty.

"We were fitter but unfortunately the penalty miss and then the England goal that followed after that knocked us severely.

"We want to be remembered for different reasons this weekend as this is the last chance saloon for Scotland in terms of qualifying for the World Cup.”