A report in the Daily Mail claims that Odsonne Edouard, Olivier Ntcham and Kris Ajer were pushing for moves away from Celtic last summer.
Following Celtic’s disastrous Champions League defeat from Ferencvaros Neil Lennon pushed the blame onto players that ‘didn’t want to be here’ but no sales were completed during the summer transfer window which ran through into October.
Although there was a decent run of results following the Ferencvaros defeat at the end of August it lacked substance with the wheels coming off spectacularly by the time November came around with four more home defeats on the bounce.
Stephen McGowan of the Daily Mail has better contacts than most in the heart of Celtic, in a Special Report he reveals:
A lack of fans seemed to unease Celtic more than most. Three players – Odsonne Edouard, Olivier Ntcham and Kristoffer Ajer – wanted to leave last summer and with fans desperate for ‘the ten’ unhappy players felt like the lesser of two evils.
In January Ntcham left to join Marseille on loan with Hatem Abd Elhamed and Jeremie Frimpong sold.
Since selling Moussa Dembele and Kieran Tierney Celtic haven’t got close to finding adequate replacements highlighting the problems in scouting and recruitment.
When Mikael Lustig and Cristian Gamboa moved on in 2019 the club tried Hatem Abd Elhamed, Moritz Bauer and Jeremie Frimpong at right-back. This year alone Ajer, Jonjoe Kenny and Tony Ralston have all played at right-back.
There will be plenty of fall-out from this season but the main issue is how quickly Dominic McKay and whoever else is arriving can put the club back together.