Neil Lennon has admitted to feeling personally ‘let down’ by Jeremie Frimpong as the wantaway full-back closed in on an £11.5million move to German big guns Bayer Leverkusen.
Record Sport understands Frimpong’s shock move to the Bundesliga should be completed on Wednesday with the final fee for the 20-year-old rising to a potential total of 13m euros.
But Lennon could not hide his own disappointment in Frimpong’s decision to push for the deal to go through at a time when his team mates are struggling to salvage what’s left of their ten in a row campaign.
He said: “Yes, I feel a bit let down because we felt we could progress him further and we offered him a new deal which would have kept him here for another two or three years but it was down to the player’s personal ambition.
“Whether that’s the right way for him remains to be seen. For us, though, from a business point of view - and maybe from a footballing point of view as well - when a player’s mind is set like that it’s very difficult to bring him back round.
“It didn’t come as a surprise at all. This has been in the offing for the past couple of months. We offered the player talks for a new deal a few months back but he declined and made it clear that he wanted to leave, despite our best efforts to keep him.
“We’ve received a very robust offer for him and, after talking about it at length, we think it’s the best thing for the club going forward.
“Obviously, we’re now looking to bring in a right-back to play in that position.”
Lennon insisted just last month that none of his players would be allowed to leave in January, while admitting some of them agitating for a move since the summer.
But he said: “The size of the offer was good business for the club and the fact is that he’d also come off it a little bit in his last few games, as though he’d been distracted by all the speculation surrounding the move.
“It’s difficult when it’s a player you’ve helped to develop. You’re sorry to see him go but, eventually, he didn’t want to stay and progress here. There was a determination about him to go so we took our decision.”
Lennon now plans to sign a replacement right back before the transfer window closes on Monday night but is adamant Frimpong’s departure will not open the flood gates for the rest of his unsettled squad.
Asked if other big hitters may now demand to be sold he snapped: “Like who?”
When the names of Odsonne Edouard and Olivier Ntcham were suggested Lennon answered: “There would need to be an interest in them first and there’s nothing that I’m aware of. I wouldn’t have thought we’re about to sell any more players.”
Lennon also dismissed suggestions that he is still waiting to discover if his own job is safe after chief executive Peter Lawwell promised to conduct a January review of the manager’s position.
He said: “I speak to Peter every day. We talk about selling players, we talk about bringing players in and I take the training every day with my players. So my role hasn’t changed one bit.”
And Lennon remains convinced that criticism of his leadership and of his players has been wildly over the top.
He said: “Listen, we haven’t won in four games. Two of those games had mitigating circumstances to say the least. We had 13 players out for God’s sake through something out of our control.
“The performance at Ibrox was excellent - they deserved better - and I felt the performance at Livingston was not too shabby either when I look back at some of the other performances.
“So I don’t think we’ve been in bad form even though this run would suggest that. The atmosphere has been good this week. We’ve lost a player who was very popular among the group and with the fans but we are looking forward to getting back playing.
“It was strange not having a game at the weekend but we’ve had a good week’s training and caught up with a bit of work that some of the players missed out on when they were isolating.”
