NEIL LENNON admits he feels let down by Jeremie Frimpong’s decision to quit Celtic, and that the player’s recent downturn in form was due to his desire to leave the club.
Frimpong travelled to seal a move to German giants Bayer Leverkusen yesterday for a fee which could rise to £11.5m, an offer that Lennon feels was too good for Celtic to refuse, particularly with the right-back having expressed his desire to move on some weeks ago.
But having given Frimpong a platform after the club signed him from Manchester City, Lennon is disappointed that Celtic won't see the best of the 20-year-old.
“I feel a bit let down because we felt we could progress him further,” Lennon said. “We offered him a new deal which would have kept him here for another two or three years, but it was down to the player’s personal ambition.
“Whether that’s the right way for him remains to be seen. For us, though, from a business point of view and maybe from a footballing point of view as well...when a player’s mind is set like that it’s very difficult to bring him back round.
“It didn’t come as a surprise at all, this has been in the offing for the past couple of months. We offered the player talks for a new deal a few months back, but he declined and made it clear that he wanted to leave, despite our best efforts to keep him.
“We’ve received a very robust offer for him and, after talking about it at length, we think it’s the best thing for the club going forward. The fact is that he’d also come off it a little bit in his last few games, as though he’d been distracted by all the speculation surrounding the move.
“It’s difficult when it’s a player you’ve helped to develop. You’re sorry to see him go but, eventually, he didn’t want to stay and progress here. There was a determination about him to go so we took our decision.”
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