A crazy “story” broke yesterday from online sports media outlet Football Insider that Celtic are set to terminate French midfielder Olivier N’tcham‘s contract with immediate effect. The £4.5m 2017 signing from Manchester City was once touted for a £13m move to Porto back in 2018, has fallen out of favour with the Hoops management this season due to poor form.
N’tcham has spent the second half of this season on loan at Marseille where his apparent signing made the then manager Andre Villas Boa resign when he said of the move, “The transfer window finished with the arrival of a new player. A decision which wasn’t taken by me. I had nothing to do with this decision.
“In fact, I learned about it in the press this morning. It is precisely a player for whom I said no [to signing]. He was never a player on our list.”
This story seemed strange to me at the time as Celtic, to my memory, have only ever terminated the contract of a player once in their recent history when they decided to free Nadir Ciftci back in 2018 after a poor spell at Paradise. That move made sense as Ciftci had no real value in the market place and it made sense for both parties.
N’tcham, however, seems odd. And this is the reason Vital Celtic didn’t report the story yesterday when it broke.
Celtic could easily recoup the fee paid for him as he clearly has talent, he just needs to put his heart into his game. A new manager could easily rejuvenate his career, like Rodgers did when he signed him so why would Celtic then let him go for free?
Well it seems there could be some weight to the story as former Sky journalist Pete O’Rourke tweeted the story yesterday:
Olivier Ntcham is now a free agent this summer after the player and Celtic decided to terminate his contract early. #CelticFC #Marseille
— Pete O'Rourke (@SportsPeteO) May 22, 2021
The replies to O’Rourke’s tweet from (not just) Celtic fans were predictable in their shared opinion of not doubting his talent, but his attitude and the way he as coached at the club:
Celtics best CM when hes on form easily but that whole team has regressed under Lennon. I would take him at Rangers as cover.
— Rangers Banter (@RangersBanter17) May 23, 2021
That's one who'll come back to haunt us, guaranteed! @CelticFC @CelticGossip
— Michael Murphy (@Micmur28) May 22, 2021
https://twitter.com/ElevenLubos/status/1396169131393703943?s=20
Would rather take the hit. Head was gone a long time ago. Constantly linked with moves since he arrived and hasn’t shown anything that we will miss, however that goal against lazio 👏
— Craig Callery (@CalleryCraig) May 22, 2021
https://twitter.com/dollydimples88/status/1396263556828520449?s=20
Good riddance. The heart of a mouse.
— Brian Murphy (@MurfBrian) May 23, 2021
And I’ll leave this final tweet which just sums up N’tcham’s time at Celtic:
Sad ending to his time at Celtic. Had some great moments
— James (@fluffit_prince) May 22, 2021