Neil Lennon has told Paul Slane that he’s always welcome at Celtic.
Tony Mowbray signed the winger during his brief reign as manager but following the players departure from Celtic in January he has gone off the rails with a trip to Amsterdam hitting the front pages following his twitter revelations.
Slane made a substitute appearance for Celtic away to Ross County at the start of the season but after a loan spell at Partick Thistle didn’t work out he came to an agreement to quit Celtic.
“Paul found it difficult to start with, coming to a big club from Motherwell, and you always keep an eye out on those types,” Lennon explained.
“We kept him reassured, he was doing very well and then he got a very bad injury. That set him back for a while.
“He had loan spells at MK Dons and Partick Thistle which didn’t work out. With his talent it should have went well and it didn’t.
“It came to January, we had a chat and told him he could stay and work with the development side But he is better than that level. We gave him the option to stay or go and he picked the option to go.
“Paul was a really hard worker, a good pro and I didn’t have a day’s problem with anything off the field but he is only 21 and he has a lot of football ahead of him. I hope he can find a club and get playing on a regular basis.
“I’m always here for any players that move on. Paul’s got a bit of growing to do, finding his niche in life and in the game. I hope he will find it.
“He still has a lot to offer the game, but he needs to find a home. He needs to settle down and start playing football consistently but I’m there for him, like I would be for any other player.”
Full marks to Lennon, all too easy for young players to let things get the better of them.
Hopefully the lad gets his act together again and manages to get his fitness back to a high standard. Certainly the path he had chosen was only going to lead to abject failure.
Its a shame the way things turned out for him but making your way at a club like Celtic is always going to be a tough mountain to climb such is the standards the club sets for promising young players….
You can have all the talent in the world but if the heads not right then more often than not, as we have seen too many times before, the exit door is the only way to go.
I liked the look of him in the handful of appearances he made and considered him a decent talent so here’s hoping he pulls up his socks, buys a phone without internet access and makes strides to fulfilling his potential!