Celtic supporters may well have seen the last of Olivier Ntcham
When Olivier Ntcham scored one of Celtic’s most memorable European goals last season, few could have foreseen him leaving the club in underwhelming circumstances just 15 months later.
In this disastrous campaign for Celtic, however, nothing comes as much of a surprise.
In the latter stages of this winter transfer window, it was reported that Celtic were in discussions with Marseille over a move for the French midfielder.
Initial reports suggested a loan deal with an option to buy that would generate as much as £9m for the Scottish champions, but by Monday afternoon Sky Sports had confirmed the figure was only £4.5m.
Ntcham may have struggled for a place in Neil Lennon’s team this season, making just 10 appearances in the Premiership, but these supporters were unimpressed with the amount their club stand to make from the deal.
Looking ahead to the club’s transfer activity this summer, Lennon was quoted by the Glasgow Times on Sunday as saying: “You are never clear because you never know what’s happening. You have an idea, you have a plan.
“The (Jeremie) Frimpong deal was running but it was never guaranteed we would get the deal we wanted. In the end we did, and it’s really good business from our point of view and Jeremie wants to continue his football elsewhere, so that might be the case for a lot of players.
“But a lot of these things are protracted and run and run, there’s a few bumps and up and downs along the way, it’s never seamless.
“I think there will be a rebuild of some capacity, players who are coming to the ends of their contracts may be looking to move on and the club may be looking to move them on.
“Then obviously loan players will be going back. Whether we investigate loaning them again is a discussion for the summer but there will be changes in the summer, there is no question of that.”
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