TIME FOR THE REAL EDOUARD TO STAND UP

Lennon needs his star man to turn on the style in Sarajevo tie

AHEAD of what promises to be a fraught Europa League qualifier away to FK Sarajevo in Bosnia on Thursday night, the issue staring Neil Lennon in the face is striking.

Albian Ajeti has been Celtic’s in-form forward over these past few weeks and is now the Premiership’s top scorer with five goals in his last six matches.

But no sooner had he tucked away the second goal in Sunday’s 3-0 win over Hibernian at Parkhead than he was pulling up with a hamstring strain and ruled out for a few weeks.

The enigma that is Leigh Griffiths was back on the bench at the weekend, but the Scotland international has not played a single competitive minute this season after incurring Lennon’s wrath for reporting back for pre-season training overweight and short of fitness.

Patryk Klimala, a £3million signing back in January, has two goals to his name this season but the Polish Under-21 international has yet to look convincing in green and white hoops.

But, most worryingly of all for Celtic supporters, Odsonne Edouard, regarded as the club’s best striker since Henrik Larsson, appears to be having a particularly bad case of ennui.

The £30million-rated Frenchman, who has admirers south of the border in the form of Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Brighton, has had his attitude and application questioned after a low-key display in last Thursday’s 1-0 Europa League qualifying win against Riga in Latvia.

Mohamed Elyounoussi replaced the below-par Edouard and scored a late winner to set up the play-off round showdown with Sarajevo, thereby avoiding a European exit that Lennon declared would have been ‘unthinkable’.

Former Paris Saint-Germain forward Edouard was duly benched for Sunday’s visit of Hibs — and a performance that Lennon declared was his team’s finest of the season. Ten out of ten, no less.

Yet, while admitting that his star striker is not firing on all cylinders, Lennon insisted that the player’s frame of mind is fine.

But with group stage football on the line once again on Thursday night, the Celtic boss now badly needs the real Edouard to stand up. Whether an imminent Palace bid unsettles him further remains to be seen.

‘Odsonne is probably not at his best at the minute, which is fine,’ said Lennon on Sunday. ‘He is a human being and he has come back from an injury. There’s been a lot of games, so there’s maybe a little bit of fatigue. But mentally he seems fine.’

However, others are not so sure. On Sunday afternoon, BBC Scotland pundit and Livingston midfielder Marvin Bartley offered a counter view, saying that Edouard looked like a player who has definitely been affected by the constant speculation over his future.

‘I think his head has been turned,’ claimed Bartley on Sportsound. ‘I definitely agree he is a class act, but what with some of the teams he has been linked with and some of the wages being talked about.

‘You know what agents are like in the modern game. I really do think his head has been turned.

‘He might not be coming out and saying that he wants to go, but he is maybe not playing at the level he is used to. Maybe he is not training the same way.

‘It’s so difficult to know what is going on in the background. He is only human, so it’s easy for your head to be turned. He didn’t look himself in midweek (against Riga), did he?’

For Celtic fans holding out for a hero in Bosnia, well, at least Edouard certainly has form for helping his side cope with a tricky tie against FK Sarajevo. In July of last year, against the backdrop of spectacular thunder and lightning, the Scottish champions faced an early storm on the pitch in a Champions League qualifier between the sides, falling behind to a goal by Mirko Oremus. But, after Mikey Johnston’s 30-yard thunderbolt, Edouard eased the nerves with the allimportant second after the break — before a late Scott Sinclair goal killed off the contest at 3-1. A 2-1 home victory in Glasgow ensured progression 5-2 on aggregate. This time around, Sarajevo won’t have home advantage, with the match switched to Zenica an hour north of the Bosnian capital after their atmospheric Stadium Asim Ferhatovic Hase was deemed not suitable for UEFA requirements for the fixture.

Yet while the striking department remains a cause for concern for Lennon, there was a lot to like about the second-half cameo against Hibs on Sunday by midfielder David Turnbull.

The £3million signing from Motherwell sparkled after replacing the injured Ryan Christie at halftime and showed his eye for a killer forward pass when setting up the third goal for Elyounoussi.

Christie is expected to be fine to face Sarajevo after recovering from an elbow to the stomach but Turnbull gives Lennon options.

Former Celtic boss Gordon Strachan certainly believes the 21-year-old has a big future ahead of him at Parkhead.

Strachan, though, was equally impressed by old-timer Scott Brown, who put in his own best performance of the campaign against Hibs.

For his part, Lennon insisted Brown’s ‘imperious’ performance against the Easter Road side — allied to the club’s data analysis — laid waste to suggestions that the former Scotland captain’s legs have gone.

The smart money suggests the 35-year-old will be among the first names on the team sheet on Thursday night for a match Celtic and Lennon simply cannot afford to lose.

‘David Turnbull will be a big player for Celtic over the next few years,’ predicted former Scotland boss Strachan.

‘He was fantastic when he came on. He has a great variety of passes. I think he watches good players and has picked up good habits.

‘But Scott Brown led by example and I picked him as one of my choices as man of the match.

‘He’s seen it all and done it all before, coming back from midweek European games at 4am and then training properly.

‘His attitude was fantastic and you could see him cajoling players at 2-0 up.

‘If a team scores at that point, it can be difficult, but he was in there organising.

‘Scott’s ability on the ball was good and had a lot to do with Celtic’s victory.’