Neil ‘target’ Andreu has blinkers on

TONY A NDREU insists he is blanking out s peculation about a potential reunion with Alex Neil at Norwich City. The French midfielder is the Premiership’s top scorer with 12 goals, which have hel ped spearhead an outstanding first half of the season for Hamilton.

That collective f orm earned manager Neil a s witch to Championship force Norwich last week, with suggestions that he could now attempt to raid his old club for Andreu’s prolific talents.

The 26- year- old i s, however, refusing to be distracted from his key role with Accies, who welcome champions Celtic tomorrow.

‘Until now nothing has happened,’ said Andreu (below). ‘I’m here and I want to play for my team-mates and the club. That’s all.

‘If something happens, we’ll see. It would be a big thing to play in the Championship, but I am a long way from thinking about that. All I’m thinking about is the game on Saturday.

‘I definitely want to give my best for this club. I have improved a lot here.

‘I want to stay and see what we can achieve. Everyone wants to play at the highest level, but I’m here.’

The prospect of a departure for Norfolk would be dreaded by Accies fans, one of whom called a radio phone-in last week to claim Andreu had actually travelled south with Neil.

‘I was not in the car,’ he laughed. ‘I was definitely still here!

‘That’s football. There is a lot of speculation.

‘Until there is a contract in f r ont of you to read, then everything is speculation.’

While set on helping interim boss Martin Canning at New Douglas Park, Andreu doesn’t attempt to disguise the influence Neil has had on his career.

‘For me, he was a really good coach,’ he said. ‘After I left Livingston, he called and asked me to come here. He trusted me.

‘He lifted me up in my level of performance. Last year, I played better than ever before. I thank him for that. Now we have to move on.’

Andreu admits he is surprised to find himself perched on top of the scoring charts a fortnight into 2015, but isn’t hung up on seeing out the season in that lofty slot.

‘There’s a long way to go,’ he said. ‘It would be amazing but I don’t f ocus on t hat. I’m a midfielder, so I don’t think I have to score every week.

‘Scoring 16 goals (in all competitions) last season was my highest tally. Now I’m not far from that. ‘At the start of the season I thought: “I scored 13 in the league (last year), so maybe I need to score 10 in the Pr e m i e r s h i p” . I’ve surpassed that target now.’

Europe seems a realistic aim for Accies — sitting just two points behind t hird- placed Dundee United — but Andreu would settle for continued improvement. ‘ The top six would be amazing,’ he said. ‘All of the players within the group have improved on last year.

‘ We want to play better in every game.

‘ We ca n’ t settle for being OK. That’s why we are where we are.’