LENNON HAPPY WITH EDOUARD INHERITANCE
Lennon loves his £9m attacker Edouard and hopes he will continue Old Firm scoring streak
NEIL LENNON was entitled to a few pangs of jealousy as he watched Celtic smash a club transfer record to sign Odsonne Edouard from Paris Saint-Germain last year. As manager of Hibernian he could not dream of shelling out even a 10th of that sum on a single player. And during his own first spell as boss at Celtic Park, he spent an inordinate amount of time trying to persuade Peter Lawwell to splash out on a centre-forward.
Lennon got as far as persuading the chief executive to pay Schalke £2.3million for Teemu Pukki, but that was a ceiling under which Gary Hooper, Anthony Stokes, Mo Bangura, Amido Balde and Leigh Griffiths brought varying degrees of value to Parkhead.
There was only downscaling under his successor Ronny Deila, but the appointment of Brendan Rodgers in 2016 signalled a change in approach. Moussa Dembele may have cost a mere development fee of a few hundred thousand pounds to Fulham, but the overall package to secure the Frenchman altered the club’s wage structure.
Similarly, the deal to sign the promising Edouard on loan from PSG a year later included an expensive option to buy. Thus Lennon’s second crack at the job came with a £9m inheritance in attack.
‘I’m glad they did it,’ smiles Lennon, who will start Edouard against Rangers today. ‘It augurs well for the future. Whether it sets a
precedent, I don’t know,
but it did send out a message that the club do have that sort of spending power if needed.’
The £20m earned through the sale of Dembele to Lyon last August ensured a healthy bank balance at Parkhead but, although indulged more than any Celtic manager since Martin O’Neill, Rodgers became frustrated at the club’s inability to push the boat out for new players and was bound for the exit door even before Leicester City offered a sudden escape route last month.
Although the sense remains that the job of succeeding Rodgers permanently is Lennon’s to lose, the Northern Irishman will not realistically be invited to break the record again this summer.
Nevertheless, he can already be thankful to Edouard for enhancing his chances of landing the job for the long term.
It was the Frenchman who slotted home the stoppage-time winner on the returning manager’s first night at Tynecastle and the 21-year-old repeated the trick at Dens Park last time out to secure a 1-0 win.
That cumulative four-point swing has given Celtic the comfort of a double-digit lead going into today’s visit of Rangers.
‘The goal Odsonne scored two weeks ago was really important, psychologically,’ admits Lennon. ‘Can he score more? That may come, and his all-round play might get better as well, but we’re talking about a player who’s nowhere near his peak yet.
‘He’s got 18 goals already this season, which is a healthy return. And, in the modern game, the way prices are going everywhere else, then £9m is not a lot of money.
‘For us it obviously is (a lot of money), but we’re hoping to get that back over the years with what he produces for us.’
It was at this very stage last season that Edouard proved he has a taste for the derby fixture.
Thrown on by Rodgers in a bold substitution after the sending-off of defender Jozo Simunovic, the forward’s running power rattled Rangers and culminated in him curling home the winning goal in a 3-2 win at Ibrox.
Edouard went on to score twice more as Celtic thrashed their dispirited rivals 5-0 in the final Old Firm clash of the season and he is the natural choice to lead the line again this lunchtime.
‘He’s a maverick, he has really good skills at times, even if physically he could do a little more,’ assesses Lennon. ‘But I’ve been really pleased with his contribution.
‘He’s come up with some really important goals but there’s more to come from him, he’s only 21. I’m pleased with his progress and I’m sure the club are, too.
‘His ability to rise to the occasion is a good thing to have — you need your big players in the big games and at big moments. And he’s certainly done that for me in two of our four games so far.
‘It’s a good knack to have, and the timing of his goals under me have been pretty good so far — although I wouldn’t mind if they were scored a bit earlier!
‘I don’t care when they come as long as they do though. I’m pleased for him because he’s a quiet boy, and he’s working very hard at his game at the minute. He’s an asset.’
Edouard came off the bench at Tynecastle and was then started as a secondary striker behind Oliver Burke in the Scottish Cup tie at Hibs.
There have been occasions, such as at Ibrox last year, when Edouard has looked most comfortable roving in off the left flank but Rodgers’ original plan to use him as a support player off Dembele was kyboshed by the latter’s insistence on a move to France. Lennon, too, may harbour certain reservations over Edouard’s suitability for leading the line but, with Burke a raw work in progress on loan from West Brom, he remains the best bet for today’s potentially decisive game. ‘I see Odsonne as a No 9,’ added Lennon. ‘There are facets of that position he needs to learn, but he can be on the periphery of a game and then all of a sudden catch fire and that’s the sort of maverick in him.
‘Can he be more consistent in his performances? Yes, and we’re hoping that’ll come. Ideally we’d prefer to work more centrally in the process of the team, and play centre-forward as much as he can.
‘Physically, he’s a specimen — I don’t think even he knows how strong he can be yet. And he’s a good finisher once he’s in there.
‘I think he’ll develop more. He’s getting adjusted to the British game having come over from France, he doesn’t speak great English — or at least he cracks on he doesn’t. He pricks his ears up sometimes when he wants to.
‘These are the games people remember, where you write your name in the annals of the club. Hopefully he has plenty more to write.’
His ability to rise to the occasion is a good thing for a player to have