Chris Sutton believes that Olivier Ntcham may have a future at Celtic- with a year added to his contract.
The midfielder has fallen spectacularly from grace over the last two years with Neil Lennon confirming that he had been wanting away long before going out on loan to Marseilles in January.
Ntcham’s move to Marseilles could hardly have worked out any worse with the writing on the wall when Andre Villas Boas slammed his arrival after his first day at the club.
Game time has been something of a rarity with four appearances so far without managing to put in a full 90 minutes for the French side.
Marseilles will soon be returning Ntcham to Celtic where his personal motivation, the arrival of a new manager and the remaining12 months left on his contract will all come into focus.
Reflecting on his dismal loan move in the Daily Record, Sutton writes:
His woeful experience will have shown him how horrible it can be if you don’t get the right club and Celtic always looked after him. He was wanted. If he feels it he might just return a different player and a potent force.
Hand on heart, do I think it’s going to happen? I’m not sure. Maybe he has burned his bridges. Maybe his best times at Celtic have been and gone and there is no way back. But he’s not 38, he’s 25. And you can’t argue he lacks talent because he has plenty of it.
Ntcham is moving into the final year of his contract so that’s a decision for Celtic. There’s no chance he’s going to sign a new contract so do they take some money? Trouble is, it’s not going to be much. Would it be more valuable to have a firing Ntcham than get, say, £4m?
It’s a hard one. Common sense says they should take it but what about offering another deal – even for a year to protect the fee. I’d say provided you got the impression he fancies it, there’s merit in that given the fact the club have so many other changes to make.
Celtic paid Manchester City £4.5m in the summer of 2017 with an extension signed a year later despite the departure of his close friend Moussa Dembele to Lyon.
