The sight of a Celtic player training alone while contracted to the club is a strange one indeed. As Lubo98 covered earlier on The Celtic Star Boli Bolingoli’s future certainly doesn’t seem to be at Celtic given the social media images we’ve all seen over the last day or so, but it seems a strange decision not to have the player training at Lennoxtown rather than on his own.
Celtic have not had our injury worries to seek this season and surely even if there is only the slightest chance of Bolingoli having to be called upon in the last stretch of the league campaign there remains that possibility, as such training with your teammates would surely be helpful would it not? After all the player has had to play on two occasions this season when circumstances called for his inclusion.
There is also the issue of Celtic and Bolingoli being mutually tied to a contract beyond this season. As such, even if the player is not in the manager’s long-term plans, we would, much like the ill-fated loan deal to Russian side Ufa, be looking for a temporary move for Bolingoli again during the final year of his contract.
The sight of the player training on his own rather than with his teammates may not exactly encourage potential suitors, both in terms of the players fitness but also some may well reach the conclusion there would be good reasons for him not being wanted around the squad. It hardly encourages those who may otherwise commit to a short-term deal to see a contracted player ploughing a loan furrow. Of course, it may even be possible Ufa still hold the player’s registration even now, although it certainly appeared that agreement had been terminated.
Yet perhaps it is already over at Celtic for Boli Bolingoli. Celtic don’t often do so, as it sends out a message players can down tools and engineer an exit, but perhaps a financial settlement has already been reached – as we did with Olivier Ntcham – to pay off Bolingoli’s final year of his contract and from the summer he is free to find a new club.
If that’s the case there would be little commitment on Boli’s part to return to Celtic and Ange Postecoglou would perhaps be unwilling to risk a player, even if an injury crisis ensued, who was already to all intents and purposes out the door. As such paying his wages for the final weeks of the season while the player stays away may well make sense.
No doubt answers to questions will arise in the coming weeks, but it’s certainly a strange sight to see Boli Bolingoli training alone rather than with the rest of the squad at Lennoxtown.
Niall J
