JOHN McGinn has edged closer to becoming a Celtic player this evening as Hibs has omitted him from their squad to face SI Runavik this evening in the Europa League qualifier.
Today Neil Lennon admitted that Celtic had tried again to sign the midfielder but that the latest bid had been rejected. Celtic let it be known that they were prepared to wait unto January and get the player for free and tonight the Easter Road side have blinked first.
Lennon named his 18 man squad to play the Faroese side at Easter Road and there was no place for McGinn. The Hibs squad is Bogdan, Whittaker, Ambrose, Hanlon, McGregor, Stevenson, Boyle, Mallan, Kamberi, Slivka, Shaw: Subs: Laidlaw, Gray, Bartley, Swanson, S Murray, Martin, Porteous.
Brendan Rodgers was also asked today about the transfer saga of the summer saying: “I am distant from that, so time will tell. That’s something for the clubs to organise. I coach the team, I manage the team. We target players but ultimately any agreements have to be between the two clubs.
“We respect John is still very much a Hibs player and unless there’s an agreement… like I say, it’s going to be a difficult one. That’s really between the clubs.”
Yesterday Neil Lennon revealed that McGinn has become unsettled – that is code for he wants the deal to proceed – and Lennon knows he will have an extremely unhappy player to contend with should his dream move to Celtic be delayed.
“This is football and you can’t stop progress, but all the speculation is not an easy thing for him to deal with. We just need to manage him as best we can until it’s resolved one way or the other.
“The best thing for him is to play. I’ve seen no ill-effects in his play. He was excellent on Sunday and played well at Linlithgow. He has a bit of a dead leg, but has trained well and is available for selection.”
But despite being available for selection, Hibs have NOT selected their best player, who will surely now be within touching distance of his dream move to his boyhood heroes.
That, ultimately, is not something that Neil Lennon would be comfortable stopping.
John McGinn? He’s coming home!
