Neil bidding to silence the quiet old Bhoy
Hibs boss Lennon worried striker Pukki may come back to haunt him
TEEMU PUKKI cut a subdued figure for much of his time at Celtic, according to Neil Lennon. Silencing his former £3million signing now becomes one of the key challenges of his first competitive game in charge of Hibernian.
The ‘very quiet’ boy will be back in Scotland, at Easter Road, on Thursday night with Brondby for a Europa League second-qualifyinground tie against Lennon’s new club.
The Finn never quite assimilated into the Scottish game after signing from Schalke 04 in 2013 and drifted in and out of contention, scoring seven league goals but none in five Champions League attempts.
The 26-year-old initially joined Brondby on loan but is now a permanent fixture there, and Lennon suspects he will show himself as a very good player more comfortable in his new surroundings than in the old of Parkhead three years ago.
‘He’s a very quiet boy and, listen, he’s not the first person to come to Glasgow and not hit the ground running,’ said Lennon.
‘He had a few injury problems as well and at a club like Celtic, when you’re brought in for money, you have to score goals.
‘And he wasn’t really an out-andout goalscorer. He played within himself a little bit, I thought. He didn’t really show his capabilities. I don’t know if it was too big for him because he had been at Sevilla and at Schalke, so he’d been at big clubs.
‘He was never prolific but we felt he had the qualities we wanted. He would maybe say he never got enough chances to show that on a consistent basis, which maybe is fair. It doesn’t take away the fact he’s a very good player.
‘I think his time was probably harshly assessed. He did OK but I wouldn’t say he was a complete disaster by any means.
‘At Celtic, you’re under the spotlight consistently and, when you dominate the ball as much as we did, you’re expected to come up with a certain volume of goals.
‘Listen, he is not going to turn into Superman just because he has got a move to Brondby.
‘He still has the same attributes; good feet, OK with his back to goal and he will go in behind as well. He is a good footballer. He has never been the most physical of players, he was never that type.’
The challenge of a match-fit Danish side, fresh from a 10-1 aggregate thumping of Valur from Iceland in the last round, is one of the most difficult Lennon and the Scottish Cup winners could have faced.
Hibs, who have sold 10,000 season tickets on the back of their historic Scottish Cup win, will be mindful of the misery inflicted by Malmo three years ago — a 7-0 thrashing of Pat Fenlon’s feeble side contributing to the worst aggregate defeat (9-0) of a Scottish team in European history.
Lennon was at Easter Road for the Malmo massacre, spying for Celtic on the Swedish side’s Tokelo Rantie and Jiloan Hamad.
‘I absolutely do not want something like that on my CV — but it can happen if you get caught cold and Malmo are a top Swedish team,’ he said. ‘It is fraught with danger.’