Lennon sets up a hotline to Henrik at Nou Camp
NEIL LENNON plans to open a two-way transmission with Henrik Larsson after it was confirmed the Celtic icon will form part of Ronald Koeman’s backroom staff at Barcelona. The Swede, who played alongside Koeman at Feyenoord, has been out of the game for a year after leaving his managerial post at Helsingborg. Larsson, a Champions League winner with Barca in 2006, has signed a two-year deal to work as assistant coach to Koeman, who left his role as Netherlands boss to replace the sacked Quique Setien on Wednesday. And former Parkhead teammate Lennon believes that development could help Celtic in terms of players potentially moving between the respective sides. ‘I am delighted for Henrik,’ said the Parkhead boss. ‘It’s a great appointment for him. Koeman is an outstanding manager. ‘Barcelona bringing him in speaks for itself. Henrik has
history there. It is a brilliant step forward for him in terms of the coaching side of things. I am sure he will learn a lot. ‘I have got a direct line in to Barcelona, which might be very beneficial for us going forward. ‘It is great to have contacts around the game and people you have either played with or worked with before at clubs. ‘It is a great move for Henrik. It is an outstanding chapter for him in his career.’ Lennon is in the process of finalising his squad in this window, with talks ongoing with Brighton over defender Shane Duffy and
Celtic continuing to keep tabs on Motherwell’s David Turnbull. One player who could depart is Tom Rogic, with Lennon confirming there is interest in the Australian from Qatar. ‘I admire Tom. He’s a brilliant player,’ said Lennon. ‘A club has made an enquiry, but that’s about the long and short of it.’ One player who won’t be leaving is Leigh Griffiths, with Lennon shooting down suggestions the striker could go out on loan to Aberdeen. ‘I don’t know where these stories come from. It’s speculation,’ he said. ‘At the moment, he’s not fit. He’s got a calf strain and needs to get fit and back into training. ‘Putting him out on loan is not in my thinking or in any of my priorities at the minute.’ Boli Bolingoli’s future remains unresolved, with the Belgian yet to learn his fate after his blatant breach of Covid-19 protocols.
‘The club are going to do a disciplinary investigation and once that is finalised, I will have a better idea what we are doing with him,’ said Lennon. Meanwhile, the Celtic boss believes that those fans who turned on Kieran Tierney after his move to Arsenal are not representative of the majority. The full-back this week claimed he was ‘scared’ to return to Celtic Park after ‘Judas’ graffiti had been scrawled on a wall near his home. ‘We don’t want him to feel uncomfortable coming back because he is more than welcome here, that’s for sure,’ said Lennon. ‘He is a great player. He has already won a major honour at Arsenal and he went with everyone’s best wishes. ‘There is always a little bit of soreness with fans when a top player or top manager leaves a club and goes elsewhere.
‘But I think 99.9 per cent of the supporters at Celtic think the world of him. Social media is not real. People can be a hero one day and a villain the next day. It is just not the real world.’