VAKOUN ISSOUF BAYO made his Toulouse debut last night and found himself on the scoresheet twice. The 23-year-old scored a double in the match versus Grenoble in which they lost 5-3. Former PSG man Mohamed Sissoko represents Bayo and believes that Neil Lennon never gave Bayo a chance at Celtic.
As reported by the Daily Record, the agent made an out of order attack against Lennon saying that the Irishman was the reason that Bayo had never made his mark at Celtic Park – without mentioning the enormous injury record of the Ivorian. Brendan Rodgers was the manager in January 2019 when Bayo signed and made his debut away to Killie under Rodgers. However, a few weeks later he was gone and replaced by Rodgers. Sissoko believes that Lennon never gave him a chance.
“The change of manager at Celtic made it complicated for him because it wasn’t the current manager who signed him. That’s the only reason he didn’t play.
“But everyone else at Celtic was unanimous in praising his qualities.
“He is desperate to play for Toulouse and score goals.
“He has scored goals in Ivory Coast and in Slovakia and he was signed by Brendan Rodgers, but unfortunately he left a short time later.
“Therefore, his playing time was reduced to nothing.
“He knows how to score goals. He is a proper No.9 and can play in a partnership or on his own. If Toulouse use him properly, he will do very well.
“There were clubs interested in signing him from Scotland and Belgium, but he has bought 100 per cent into the Toulouse project and they were the best choice for him.”
It is worth noting that Bayo was injured potentially more than he was fit. The knock on effect of these injuries is that he wasn’t match fit and the manager wasn’t willing to risk giving him minutes in high risk matches.
Injuries hampered his progress in Glasgow with the 23-year-old missing preseason before returning to fitness in time to sign for the Ligue 2 side. Two goals on his debut will have helped him get some confidence back.
A dubious red card in the Europa League curtailed the progress that he had made to get into Neil Lennon’s reckoning before an injury ruled him out until after the winter break. Bayo was signed in January 2019, meaning he has been at Celtic for over a year already, yet has managed just 16 appearances. In that time he has scored twice (4 time if we include those that were given as own goals but are disputable) in his 364 minutes of action.
