Nonsense! Neil Lennon’s reply to West Ham story

Neil Lennon has dismissed the prospect of Olivier Ntcham joining West Ham.

Yesterday afternoon, ahead of opening the scoring at St Johnstone, a report from France claimed that the midfielder was in advanced talks about joining the English side.

Had there been a realistic prospect of a deal Ntcham wouldn’t have been risked against St Johnstone with Lennon in no mood to let the French u-21 internationalist leave the club in the middle of a tight title race.

Asked about the West Ham claim the hoops boss told The Sun:

It’s nonsense. Olivier is not going anywhere. The last thing I want is good players going out the door. If anything, I want to get players in, but it’s a tough thing to do.

I had a joke with Olivier after the game asking him if he was doing that for the cameras, putting himself out there. He’s played so well for me and I thought he was terrific. Not just his goal but his all-round game. As far as I’m concerned he’s not going anywhere.

Celtic paid Manchester City £4.5m for Ntcham in the summer of 2017 with the midfielder playing a lead role in retaining the treble.

The last 18 months have been more inconsistent with two hamstring injuries hampering his development last season alongside claims of interest from Porto and Marseilles.

Against St Johnstone Ntcham was one of the driving forces in Celtic’s 3-0 win, opening the scoring from midfield alongside Callum McGregor and Scott Brown.