Five months ago he could do no wrong with Celtic fans desperate to see John Guidetti signed on a permanent basis.
Two goals since the turn of the year and an alarming dip in form have changed opinions with the future of the Swede far from a priority for the management or the supporters.
Comments about a return to Feyernoord, after an awful performance against Aberdeen on Sunday, came at the worst possible time as a crucial period for Celtic’s treble ambitions begin.
Guidetti missed last night’s 1-0 defeat to St Johnstone through injury with Ronny Deila giving the impression that another round of talks to sign the striker is far from a priority.
‘Keeping my options open’ is generally a coded message about a polite departure with Deila unconcerned about the dilemma facing his loan signing from Manchester City.
“I don’t know more than you, maybe you know more, I don’t know” the Celtic boss replied to a question from a Dutch television crew about Guidetti’s future.
“If he wants to stay here it’s a possibility but I understand that things are going on. I want him to stay if he wants to stay. If he doesn’t want to stay we have to find someone else because we can’t force him to stay here, a lot of players want to stay at Celtic.”
Asked why Guidetti wasn’t stating Deila replied bluntly: “That’s an easy question to answer, because he isn’t good enough, you have to be good enough to play every game. Today he was injured, he’s a good player and hopefully he’ll be back soon.”