TIMOTHY WEAH'S loan deal was cut short by Celtic yesterday afternoon because he refused to play for the club in the Scottish Cup final.
It is understood that Celtic and USA Under-20 manager Tab Ramos had agreed a compromise which would have enabled the 19-year-old striker to play for his country and assist Celtic in their quest for an historic treble treble.
Ramos had invited Weah to a training camp in the immediate aftermath of this weekend’s game against Rangers at Ibrox to begin preparations for the USA’s impending World Cup campaign.
Celtic were prepared to allow Weah to head off and in return Ramos had given permission for Weah to then head back to Glasgow the week before the Scottish Cup final against Hearts on May 25, and miss America’s opening game against Ukraine which will take place the night before in the Miejski stadium in Poland.
The idea was that Weah would be given a full week’s training with his Parkhead team-mates ahead of the cup final and would then have left immediately after the match to rejoin the USA Under-20 colleagues to prepare for their games against Nigeria and Qatar.
As he left Celtic yesterday afternoon, Weah aimed a dig at Celtic interim boss Neil Lennon on his way out.
“I will be joining my national team to participate in the U20 World Cup. With this decision, the gaffer told me it is in the best interests of the team that I collect my things and go home rather than be a part of the game on Sunday so I’ll be on my way,” Weah posted on his Instagram account.
However, it is understood it was Weah himself who knocked back the chance to return for the Scottish Cup final, saying he wanted to remain with his international colleagues.
Such an attitude was deemed to show a lack of commitment to the club by Lennon who has prematurely ended his loan spell.
Weah started last week’s title winning game at Pittodrie as Celtic clinched their eighth successive title. The teenager scored four goals for Celtic following his arrival at the beginning of the January transfer window.
“I still have a lot of growing up to do in my game,” said Weah in his social media post. “I am especially thankful to the Celtic family for giving me the opportunity to show you all what I am capable of doing once given the chance. I want to thank my team-mates for supporting me every step of the way. Thanks so much to Celtic FC and to you the fans for accepting me.”
His words are unlikely to be well received after his decision to snub the club’s vital Scottish Cup final.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here