Lennon sure Buddies clash will go ahead
CELTIC manager Neil Lennon is optimistic that Wednesday night’s game against St Mirren will go ahead despite the Covid crisis at the Paisley club.
St Mirren played against Hibs yesterday with Hearts’ Zdenek Zlamal in goal after singing the keeper on an emergency loan after first-choice goalkeeper Jan Alnwick first tested positive before back-up stoppers Dean Lyness and Peter Urminksy also had to self-isolate.
Jim Goodwin’s players will be re-tested today to ascertain the safety of proceeding with Wednesday night’s encounter.
“St Mirren’s game went ahead yesterday so there’s no reason to think why ours won’t as well,” said Lennon. “My own personal view is that just because two St Mirren players got it, there’s no reason to shut the whole thing down.
“If the rest of the squad is fit and healthy we’re okay to carry on unless it spreads like wildfire through the club. It’s a difficult one. If someone gets seriously ill through it in the football environment, it will obviously be taken very seriously.
“But for the majority of players and staff, we’re fit and healthy. We have to progress now. We can’t keep stopping and starting otherwise we’ll never get the game off the ground. “As a manager, it’s just another facet you have to deal with. We’re a hostage to fortune but you have to put that out of your mind, in terms of what might happen further down the line. It’s outwith anyone’s control, really. Sometimes it’s excessive the way people are behaving towards it.
“And that’s not me being blase about the whole thing. You’ve still got to live your life. Wearing a mask is no hardship, really. The problem is, people see certain people behaving a certain way and others get their backs up because they see people not following the rules and protocols.
“We probably need to set an example by doing that but we’ve had a huge amount of testing and not a positive result yet.”
There are other matters that could yet disrupt Lennon’s plans ahead of a weighted season. As the transfer window moves into the latter stages there is a growing fear that the squad is left weakened by a late move for French Under-21 internationalist Odsonne Edouard.
Lennon has allowed a summer of speculation with regards to the striker’s future to fall on deaf ears but the volume will be cranked up in the next few weeks.
Arsenal are the latest club to be credited with an interest in the 22-year-old but he has not been without admirers over the last 18 months.
“That is just the nature of the window and it isn’t at the forefront of my thinking at the minute,” said Lennon. “We have lots of games and we want to keep all the players here and the club will do everything in their power to make sure that happens.
“I am not aware of any of that [rumours]. Honestly, I am not. It is just all speculation. We want to keep Odsonne. We know what a talent he is and we know how important the season is for the club and the supporters and Odsonne is aware of that as well.”
Lennon’s distractions from such matters lie in the games that are ahead.
“We want to build momentum now and make up for lost ground,” he added. “Potentially, we’ve got six games coming up between now and the international break. Ideally, we want to get our teeth into it now because it’s been a bit stop-start so far.”