Ange Postecoglou today explained the rationale for allowing Moritz Jenz to cut short his season-long loan at Celtic from his parent club FC Lorient that allowed the German defender to make the move to the his homeland to attempt to keep Schalke in the Bundesliga.
It’s a situation that appears to have worked out well for all parties and from today’s comments from the Celtic manager it appears that the player would not have had much chance of being signed on a permanent deal this summer, following the arrival of left-sided Japanese defender Yuki Kobayashi.
Kobayashi, joins Cameron Carter-Vickers, Carl Starfelt and presumably Stephen Welsh as the four central defenders in the Celtic squad so there was effectively no place for Jenz who therefore would have had little prospect of much football action for the rest of this season had he stayed put.
So essentially what happened is that after a conversation with the player about his future, the Australian decided that it would be best all round if Jenz looked at his opportunities elsewhere. And having played in all six Group Stage matches for Celtic in this season’s Champions league we was hardly likely to be short of offers, as indeed was the case.
“With Moritz it came from a discussion I had with the player,” Ange said today at his Media Conference. “We brought him in because we needed cover in the centre-back area and that proved to be correct as both Cameron Carter-Vickers and Carl Starfelt were out a different times.
“Having someone with his experience come in helped us. With someone on loan it is all about asking whether they are going to play and are we going to sign them at the end of the season.
“I was keen to bring in Yuki Kobayashi and that came to fruition. Then it became a discussion about what was best for Moritz and we agreed it was best for him to see if there were any opportunities elsewhere.
“It is great he has found one and he developed really well for us. I think he enjoyed his time here and contributed well in the first six months but, for both parties, it was a good time to look for different opportunities.”
Catch up with Ange Postecoglou’s Media Conference below…
