Amido Balde’s coach at Beveren has been sacked by e-mail!
Beveren are third bottom of the Belgian league going into the new year break with three back-to-back defeats sealing the fate of Ronny van Geneugden.
“We wanted to talk more with Ronny, but the board had no choice,” Beveren general manager Dirk Poppe said. “I have respect for him but couldn’t speak to him despite several phone calls, after that the decision was made to contact him by e-mail.”
Since scoring on his debut Balde has failed to find the net in 13 appearances.
The last straw for van Geneugden was a 1-0 defeat away to ten man Cercle Brugge which left the two clubs tied in second bottom place in the table with 20 points from 21 matches. The league campaign resumes on January 27.
Having been shipped out on loan at the end of the summer transfer window it’s unlikely that there will be any return to Celtic for Balde who was bought for £1.5m from Vitoria Guimares in June 2013.
Teemu Pukki also arrived during that transfer window and has made a big impression on loan at Brondby but the Danish side have gone on record that they couldn’t match the wages Celtic pay to the Finnish striker.
Pukki has scored five goals in 11 matches helping Brondby into fourth place at the winter break with fellow Celt, Holmbert Fidjonsson scoring once in eight appearances.
Fridjonsson joined Celtic in the January 2014 transfer window but failed to make a competitive first team appearance.