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Diplomatic Lennon gets the best out of peace deal

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Olivier Ntcham appears to be playing his way back into favour at Celtic.

Apart from the winning goal in the September Glasgow derby little went right for the midfielder who cost Celtic £4.5m when he was signed from Manchester City in July 2017.

Last season Ntcham had minimal impact on Celtic’s treble success but after playing for the French u-21 side he told L’eqipe that Scottish football wasn’t testing him and that he had been let down when a transfer to Porto fell through.

In the past that sort of outburst would have resulted in a player being left in the cold until a transfer fee arrived but Lennon has had to play things differently.

After expressing his unhappiness about the interview the hoops boss has ad Ntcham back in training and in the starting XI that beat Nomme Kalju 2-0 on Tuesday night.

Explaining the situation Lennon told the Daily Record:

I had a chat with him when he came back, we had a chat during the week and we had a good chat on Tuesday. It was just about him in general and trying to get to know him a wee bit better.

Whether that’s had any effect on his performance in Tallinn I don’t know, but I thought he was brilliant. Whether he plays the 10 or midfield you consider he has only really been back a week or two and it was a really good all-round performance. Again, you have to gauge the level you are playing against and be careful. But there was a lot of good things in his performance [in Tallinn] and it was pleasing.

Despite the ‘disappointment’ of missing out on his transfer to Porto Ntcham signed a new contract keeping him to Celtic until 2022.

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