Neil Lennon won’t be carrying on a grudge with Olivier Ntcham over his highly critical comments about Scottish football and Celtic blocking a reported move to Marseilles.
The midfielder gave an interview to L’Equipe after reaching the semi-finals of the u-21 European Championships which almost instantly made headlines in Scotland.
Ntcham signed a contract extension in November last year- after the alleged offer from Porto was rejected- but contributed little to the cause in comparison to his dynamic debut season.
After heart-to-heart talks, Lennon has forgiven the £4.5m signing from Manchester City and wants Ntcham to do his talking on the park by recreating the form of his first season at Celtic.
“Whether you want to call it clear the air talks, I spoke to Olivier so that’s all resolved,” the Celtic boss told The Scotsman. “He was disappointed with the way his comments came across in the French media and said the journalist phoned him to apologise.
“He gave me his side of it and we gave him our side of it and the slate is wiped clean. I don’t want to go into detail but I made my feelings pretty clear when I responded to it last week.
“I don’t like that sort of mindset towards the club. We’re not a stepping stone for anyone, we’re here to win things and be successful and progress players if that’s what they want – or keep good players for as long as possible.
“We’re a big club and you’ve seen over the years top quality players have progressed here in the Scottish environment and Olivier has looked at that and he will look to start getting better again.”
Asked if Celtic had received any offers for the midfielder Lennon added: “There has been nothing so far. It’s a question of Olivier knuckling down now, being a Celtic player and doing what he is good at. That’s what we want from him.
“He is back in with the squad and the players so it is not an issue now. He was out training on Tuesday and he isn’t one who is short of fitness as he had the Euro Under-21s so he’s only had a two-and-a-half, three week break.
“It’s a big year for him as he missed out on a bit of football in the second half of last season so it’s important he comes back to the fold and shows the talent he really is. He’s a very talented player but he needs to be more consistent with it.”
Lennon’s reaction to Ntcham’s French interview seems similar to how Brendan Rodgers treated Dedryck Boyata almost exactly a year ago when the defender refused to play against Hearts or AEK Athens after Celtic rejected an offer from Fulham.
With Scott Brown, Callum McGregor and Ryan Christie filling the midfield roles away to Sarajevo Ntcham and anyone else faces a tough task breaking into the Celtic side.
