OLIVIER NTCHAM joined Kristoffer Ajer in breaking cover yesterday as their agents asked Celtic for valuations that the club would be looking at in order to facilitate their transfers. Ajer’s agent’s request was broken by Herald/Glasgow Times and Ntcham’s by Sky Sports.
The leaking of these snippets of information more than likely came from someone at the club after Neil Lennon’s remarkable moan on Wednesday night about certain players not wanting to be at Celtic. It is becoming a messy, somewhat distasteful business.
Kristoffer Ajer and Olivier Ntcham's representatives have asked Celtic for valuations of the two players, ahead of potential moves away from Parkhead.
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) August 27, 2020
Neither Ajer nor Ntcham should be anywhere near the Celtic team on Sunday. And if it’s a dirty civil war between these want-away players and the manager then we’re likely to be reading more over the few weeks as retaliation and justification games are played.
No-one has asked about the team sheet being leaked over the past three pages. That was a common occurrence in Rodgers’ time in charge – he’d have the team plastered on boards at pre-match hotels the evening before an away game and never seemed too bothered about the news getting out. However Neil Lennon stopped that immediately when he came back to the club – until recently.
There are rumours that there are other players on the want-away list but so far nothing has been leaked. Patience please on that. There’s Ryan Christie with the same agent as Stuart Armstrong – who is on £50k a week at Southampton – eyeing that kind of money as his dad suggested over the summer reminding us all how ‘brilliant’ his boy was last season. This was something we picked up at the time and pointed out to his old man that while he started the season well his form had faded.
And the shadow of Rodgers hovers over Callum McGregor’s time at Celtic and an expected £20million bid will clearly be tempting for both the player and indeed the Celtic CEO, who sat with his head in his hands on Wednesday night as another £25m in Champions League Group stage money was thrown away so carelessly.
Lawwell is the constant in these costly summer failings against sides that Celtic have greater resources than – from Legia Warsaw and Malmo all the way through to AEK Athens Cluj and the latest disaster. If we don’t have the resources to compete with the top sides in Europe then how come we can’t compete with these sides with much lower financial levels than Celtic? You can’t blame Ronny, Rodgers or Lenny for all of these defeats but you can point out that they all happened under Lawwell’s iron-grip strategy of our football club.
Odsonne Edouard’s agent spoke to Daily Record last night just as the Scottish Sun was publishing a list of English clubs that are after the Celtic striker. That list was just really a re-hash of the various stories that we’ve all seen over the past year or so and there wasn’t one club on there that would be an appropriate choice for any agent worth his salt for a player of the remarkable ability as Odsonne. He is a player destined for the highest level, not the bottom half of the English Premier League.
Despite his agent Lasana Koita saying that French Eddie understands the significance of the Ten and is planning on being here for it, the Record somehow managed to twist his words into the negative story that they were after.
“Odsonne Edouard set for crucial Celtic talks as striker’s agent makes Champions League admission” is the Record headline but when you read the quotes from Eddie’s agent you get a very different message.
Lasana Koita had this to say yesterday: “He is disappointed with the result on Wednesday especially as he was injured and could not play. I think the goal was certainly to qualify for the Champions League. That is football.
“I will speak with him. It is not crucial for Odsonne to be playing in the Champions League but it is important.
“We are going to wait because there is still a target for Celtic. There’s the Europa League and to go for 10 titles. Ten titles is important for Odsonne. We don’t know what will happen. For now he is with Celtic. We don’t discuss with any other team for now.”
Just about every Celtic supporter understands that Odsonne Edouard is a top player destined for the highest levels in the games and expect no more from him that to stay for this season and help secure Ten-in-a-Row. He’d then leave as a hero and a Celtic legend.
Any players not wanting to be part of it then they should be chased immediately.
Hopefully Edouard is fit for Sunday. The team leak from The Celtic Star for the game against Motherwell – ie the team we’d play is as follows.
Barkas
Frimpong, Jullien, Bitton, Taylor
Brown
Turnbull, McGregor
Rogic
Edouard, Elyounoussi
