CELTS HAVE NO FEARS ON EDDY
is adamant Edouard is fully committed to the cause, for now at least.
After a poor start to the season, the France Under21 ace has found a bit of form recently and asked if he had concerns over the striker’s motivation with Celtic trailing Premiership leaders Rangers by 19 points after last week’s 1-0 Old Firm defeat,
Kennedy said: “No, not all.
“It was the same last season when we had the rumours and everything else, but Odsonne is fully committed to what we’re doing here.
“We’ve had chats and discussions with him generally and he’s very motivated to succeed here.
“He realises what he’s been given by the club and everybody inside Celtic. He’s been given a real platform to become what he has and he’s very thankful for that.
“Whether it is this summer or three or four years’ time, Odsonne Edouard will give everything he’s got to what we’re trying to do here.”
Celtic have so far failed in attempts to get Edouard to commit his long term future to the club by signing a new deal.
Kennedy admits boss Lennon would love to tie him down – but says the reality of the situation is that their star man will eventually go.
He said: “With a player of Odsonne’s quality, I’d love for him to be here forevermore.
“But with the calibre of him, there’s will always be interest.
“With that, there comes a situation where players and clubs are forced to look at things and we’re not daft enough to think there won’t be interest in him.
“We’ll just have to monitor that as it goes, but it’s not something we’re thinking about at this moment in time.”
Kennedy believes that if Edouard is angling for a big money move away from Celtic, he’ll have to play well to earn it.
That’s why he’s praying that, with Lennon’s side desperately trying to catch Gers in the title race, the Frenchman turns it on for the remaining months of the season.
He said: “There’s two sides to it. If a player does have the motivation to move on and maybe play at a higher level, he has to be doing well at the time to attract the interest and then we get the benefit of the quality of his performances.
“Odsonne is a very calm individual, he’s never one to get overly stressed or over think things.
“In terms of his training here he’s been first class. He hardly misses a session and in the last little period we’ve seen better performances from him.
“Not just him, the team itself, so hopefully now we can really charge on and see what the season brings.”
Meanwhile, Celtic have suffered a blow in their pursuit of former Hoops loan star Filip Benkovic.
The club are keen to add central defensive cover in the January window with Christopher Jullien out injured for three months.
On loan Shane Duffy has failed to impress since arriving from Brighton and the Hoops were interested in a return for Benkovic.
The Croat spent the 2018/19 campaign at Parkhead under Brendan Rodgers who is now set to farm him out on loan from Leicester City.
Rodgers hinted that Celtic could be the ideal destination for him – and yesterday Kennedy said he was on Lennon’s shortlist of targets.
However, MailSport understands there has been NO contact from Celtic about Benkovic and the 23-year-old is now set to join Belgian outfit OH Leuven.
That will come as a blow to Kennedy and Lennon after the Celtic assistant boss yesterday confirmed their interest in the Croat.
He said: “Yeah, Filip is one we know very well and with Christopher’s situation it puts us in a position where we’re probably lacking a bit of presence there and a bit of cover.
“We’ll probably try to get a body in. Filip has been here before, he knows the club, he knows ourselves – and he’s certainly one on our shortlist to look at.
“Hopefully we’ll choose the right one and get that over the line.”