Moussa Dembele last night made an acrimonious deadline day exit from Celtic as he signed a five-year deal with Lyon worth a Scottish record £20m.

But Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers still maintained that there were no promises made to Dembele regarding a move as the player left the club on a sour note.

On a day of twists and turns, Dembele forced the Parkhead side into a u-turn after the club initially turned down an offer from Lyon given the lack of time available to source a replacement.

The French under-21 internationalist was dismissed from training yesterday afternoon by Rodgers after just 20 minutes with the Celtic manager saying afterwards that the player had to be removed from the group because of a negative influence.

That came on the back of a series of explosive tweets from Dembele in the early hours of Friday morning.

The striker had tweeted: 'A man without his word is nothing. A real man keeps his word.' He then went further by writing: 'Don't get it wrong Bhoys and Ghirls nothing to do with people who really care about the club. Too much love and respect for you and the crest #CarefulWhoYouCallTheLeaderOfYours.'

Dembele also 'liked' several posts which suggested his criticism was aimed at Rodgers. It included one which claimed the Celtic manager had suggested in January that he move to Brighton as the Parkhead side were not big enough for him.

“When Moussa came into here, like a number of the players, he signed for four years," said Rodgers. "And really looking at it, there was never a promise or anything like that made. You can’t do that. If you are planning and trying to map out a career going forward then you are looking at a couple of years and that has normally been the time scale around other players who have been here and then moved on.

"But it has to be in the best interests of the club. You have to weigh all of that up. Yes, there was an opportunity for him to move. We all have to act on the best interests of the club and we are talking here about three days before the window shuts. That made it very difficult.

“It is disappointing. I seen some of the comments and you only need to look into that to see whether it is true or not. I am a Celtic supporter and as Celtic manager am I going to tell someone to go to Brighton because they are a bigger club?

"It is understandable as a tactic. I have seen it before. I have been it and seen it from the outside and it is unfortunate that it has come to that. I have close relations with all the players. The first thing I always promise them is open communication. It is always open. I wouldn’t wait six months to tell them something I can tell them now and they would vouch for that. I am ambitious for them. I want them to be the best they can be and we will always try to give them quality work. Unfortunately in the modern game if it doesn’t quite happen for players and how they want it to then maybe this is the situation that comes. That disappoints me more than anything. The people who know me here know how I work.”

Dembele netted 53 goals for Celtic, including 7 against Rangers.

The player was able to undergo his medical and seal his deal with Lyon from Glasgow but it is understood that he will be paraded by Lyon at a press conference this afternoon.

And in a statement last night from the club, Rodgers reaffirmed his stance.

“Every decision we make at Celtic will always be in the best interests of the Club and our supporters.

“It is vital to make clear that we have never promised any player that he can leave the Club at a particular time. It has never happened. In fact, we have said all along that we did not wish to sell Moussa, given the circumstances within the transfer window and that is why we rejected a significant offer yesterday.

“However, this particular decision to accept this offer has been taken in order to serve the best interests of the first-team squad, my coaching team and the culture and environment we have created in these last two seasons.

“The Board and myself are united and they have been very supportive to me on this issue."

Dembele's exit from Celtic just hours before the window closed concluded a difficult window for Celtic.

The Parkhead side publicly missed out on midfielder John McGinn who went to Aston Villa while a rejection of a £9m offer from Fulham for Dedryck Boyata saw the Belgian internationalist down tools.

Celtic secured a one-year loan deal for Leicester City's £13m centre back Filip Benkovic on Friday while they also completed the signing of former Kilmarnock midfielder Youssouf Mulumbu on a two-year deal.