Lennon fears over future of on-loan Saints
CELTIC manager Neil Lennon was last night facing up to the possibility of loan signings Fraser Forster and Mohamed Elyounoussi returning to Southampton before the current Scottish football season is concluded.
The joint decision of the Scottish FA and SPFL to suspend the season indefinitely in the face of the coronavirus health crisis has left Celtic’s quest for a ninth successive championship in limbo and also led the manager to seek clarity on the contractual situations of certain first-team players.
Under the rules governing cross-border transfers, the loan deals brokered for goalkeeper Forster and winger Elyounoussi last August stretch to the 2020 summer transfer window, which opens on June 10.
No decision has been made on if or when the current campaign will restart, but if an
extension sees matches scheduled beyond that date then, as things stand, neither player would be eligible to play for Celtic.
Lennon (pictured) now plans to speak to chief executive Peter Lawwell to discuss how the coming months might pan out, with much hinging on the outcome of an emergency meeting convened by UEFA for Tuesday.
‘This situation has thrown up all sorts of interesting quirks and questions,’ said Lennon. ‘I would need to speak to Peter or (director) Michael Nicholson on that.
‘It’s a hypothetical at the minute but it’s another thing I will now have to think about. There may be a conversation with Southampton on that.’
Lennon’s assistant John Kennedy has already confirmed that the club will make an effort to sign English cap Forster permanently this summer, while a longer deal could also be brokered for Elyounoussi, who has impressed in flashes yet been hampered by injuries since moving to Glasgow.
Uncertainty was the prevailing theme as Lennon sat down at a press briefing originally scheduled to preview this afternoon’s postponed Premiership fixture against Rangers.
When that fixture fell, Lennon immediately granted his players the weekend off, initially with the expectation that they will return to training at Lennoxtown on Tuesday.
‘We will have a staff meeting with the club execs on Monday and take it from there,’ said Lennon. ‘The plan is to get the players back in on Tuesday but we don’t know yet.
‘We don’t know how long this is going to go on for. It’s an indefinite period.
I’ve been told this thing is not even at its peak and it’s going to become more widespread.
‘We don’t know how long this impasse will last, where we are going to pick up and what we do with the players in between. Do we go on a break? You can’t fly anywhere, take them anywhere.
‘We have a lot to ponder. We will have a meeting on Monday with the executive team and see what we can do from there. At the moment, we are all in the dark.’
British football seemed determined to plough on with this weekend’s fixtures until it emerged that Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta had tested positive for coronavirus.
The former Rangers midfielder, once a playing adversary of Lennon’s, is now recovering but with the entire Arsenal first-team squad in isolation, football is dealing with the physical realities of a global pandemic.
‘What’s happened with Mikel shows how quickly it can spread, that’s the scary thing,’ continued Lennon. ‘There was an inevitability about the decision (to postpone). Once the EPL had made their decision, I think it was only right that Scotland followed suit.
‘It’s not ideal with the magnitude of the game that we were preparing for, but we just have to accept it.
‘It’s unprecedented. We don’t really know when we are going to be back playing, what training times we are going to be able to use.
‘If one of the players actually picks up the virus, then the whole thing starts over again. You have to self-isolate and the rest of the players have to do the same.’
Lennon admits the current health crisis has shaken the often insular environment of professional football. ‘We are sort of institutionalised, it’s a way of life,’ he mused. ‘We are regimented, a bit like being in the army. You train, you go to the hotel, you have the preparation, the game.
‘All that routine is indefinitely out of the window.
‘It’s a very strange situation but, listen, it’s not exclusive to us.
‘I think we are covered for any eventuality, if the league is postponed or truncated or elongated into the summer. We will be ready.’
UEFA’s emergency meeting on Tuesday will offer an update on the future of this season’s Champions League and Europa League campaigns, and it is also expected that a decision will be made to postpone the Euro 2020 finals by a year.
Lennon said: ‘I would love everything to go back to normal but I know that’s not going to be the case.
‘I would imagine the Euros may be cancelled, which would be a huge shame.
‘The other thing with the virus is we don’t know how long it’s going to last. China seem to have a grip on it now because their numbers are coming down. ‘But from what I gather we haven’t reached our peak yet. It may take a month or maybe more.’