Celtic pundit Allan Edgar has revealed why the club might have to sell Olivier Ntcham in the summer transfer window.
Edgar was a guest on the latest episode of the Celtic-related podcast ‘The Cynic’ and he was talking about Ntcham and his situation at Parkhead. The pundit revealed that because of Ntcham’s qualities and how less he is playing, Celtic might have to sell him this summer.
Ntcham has been linked with a move to Southampton in recent weeks and it was reported that the Saints have been monitoring the midfielder’s situation for some months now.
While talking about Ntcham and why the Hoops might have to sell him this summer, Edgar said: “We’ve been looking back at the season quite a lot recently and one of the things that’s jumped out and kind of hard to shake a wee bit is that Olivier Ntcham’s form before we played Rangers on the 29th was superb.”
Will Ntcham leave Celtic in the summer?
Yes, he'll leave
No, he'll stay
“He was un-droppable, but he was dropped for that game and that’s a tough one. Neil Lennon obviously did an exceptional job of bringing him back around because his form after – when he came back after the winter break was superb as well.
“I’m not convinced though that Olivier Ntcham probably sees his long term future here because he’s not a guaranteed starter and I can’t work out why, to be honest, because I think he’s probably one of most talented players in the team.
“But he’s still not a guaranteed starter. I think he would be the one, when we were talking earlier about players [who will leave and] who’ll be the one that goes, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Olivier Ntcham. I think you’d be looking at between £12 [million] and £15 million for him.”
Edgar does carry a positive opinion about Ntcham and his abilities, but he feels that the Frenchman might have to leave because of that as he isn’t quite a guaranteed starter at Parkhead.
TIF Thoughts…
Edgar is right to say that Ntcham isn’t a guaranteed starter at Celtic, as the midfielder made only 17 Premiership starts in the 2019/20 campaign. Valued at £3.60 million, he came off the bench six times and scored a total of four Premiership goals (via Whoscored).
The former Manchester City man scored the Hoops’ famous stoppage-time winner against Lazio in the UEFA Europa League and it shows that he can be a crucial player on his day and has the ability to come up with importance performances as well.
Apart from Southampton, West Ham have also drawn links with a move for him. This suggests that clubs are looking at him and he is in high demand. But Ntcham adds important midfield depth and quality to the Celtic squad and keeping him at Parkhead may not be a bad idea.