Scott Sinclair’s future has been up in the air as he has seemingly fallen behind in the pecking order since Neil Lennon took over in February. The English winger is yet to start any games this season, and the Northern Irish boss has preferred the likes of Lewis Morgan and Michael Johnston over him.
Sinclair hasn’t been handed a new contract as his one-year extension was instead triggered just a few months ago. Therefore it seems clear that he is not in the long term plans of the club. More speculation has been added about his future since clubs like Preston and Sheffield United became interested (The Scottish Sun) in his signature.
Lennon on Sinclair
However, Lennon has rebuffed those reports and claimed that he still wants the 30-year-old to stay at Parkhead this season. The manager said, ”It’s just a little difficult period for Scott, but it’s still so early. A player of that experience is always handy to have around, he’s got a great goal record, and he’s had a great time at Celtic. We don’t want him to go, that’s for sure.”
With the English transfer window closing early, once the 8th of August passes by, Sinclair would likely stay at Celtic for another season. However, it would be interesting to see whether he would be happy with playing a bits and pieces role this campaign.
Sinclair had a fruitful last season as he scored 17 goals and provided six assists. Going just by numbers, it understandable why Lennon wants to keep hold of an experienced player like him. However, it cannot be denied that quite a few of his goals was because of the excellent work of his other team-mates and Sinclair managed to find himself in the right place at the right time.
The exclusion of Sinclair since Lennon took over has been quite evident, and this recent claim from the manager might be slightly surprising to some people.
Why might Lennon be taking this stance?
Ideally, we would have wanted Celtic to part ways with Sinclair now. Losing him for free next year would be another shoddy piece of business when the winger can still extract a few million in the transfer market. However, the club is under immense pressure in the ongoing window in terms of signing new players. Maybe the Hoops and Lennon don’t want to have a new headache to replace another player when they already have so many areas to improve upon.
