Neil Lennon: "We are disappointed to lose him, but he's come in for £300,000 and we could sell him for a huge amount of money"; Celtic next face Hamilton at Celtic Park on Wednesday night
Tuesday 26 January 2021 15:10, UK
Jeremie Frimpong is on the verge of leaving Celtic and is currently abroad speaking to another club, manager Neil Lennon has confirmed.
Lennon says Frimpong expressed a desire to leave Celtic "six or seven weeks ago" and revealed the Premiership champions have received a "really robust offer" for the right-back.
"Jeremie is abroad at the moment speaking to a club, so that deal looks like it may go through," said Lennon, ahead of Wednesday's match against Hamilton.
"The player made it clear… this hasn't appeared in the last couple of days, this has been in the background for the last six or seven weeks.
"The club has made strides to renegotiate with Jeremie and his representatives and that wasn't the case. The player made it clear to me, to [head of football operations] Nick [Hammond] and the board that he wanted to leave."
Frimpong still has two-and-a-half years left on his current deal at Celtic, after joining on a four-year contract from Manchester City in 2019, but Lennon expects the defender to be sold this month.
"We got a really robust offer from a club for Jeremie," he added.
"The club felt it was a good business, we do as well from a football side of things, and when a player makes it clear he would prefer to play his football somewhere else, we all agreed that was a decision we needed to take.
"Yeah, we are disappointed to lose him, but he's come in for £300,000 and we could sell him for a huge amount of money.
"So it's credit to the development of the player himself and what the coaches and the club have done for him, that a couple of top European clubs have shown an interest in him."
A new right-back is now high on Lennon's priority list before the transfer window closes on February 1 but the Celtic manager admits the club is unlikely to spend heavily this month.
"I don't know if we'll be spending money," he said.
"It may just be looking at a player on loan until the end of the season, or one or two bargains that we feel could be value for money and would make us better."
Lennon has confirmed others have also expressed a desire to leave Celtic but says he does not expect the club to sell any more players this window.
Speaking on the future of striker Odsonne Edouard, Lennon added: "We don't want to sell him.
"There has been no bids for him, there's been no speculation surrounding him. There's been no interest in him at all, particularly in this window."
The winter transfer window is open until Monday, February 1 at 11pm.
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