Olivier Ntcham has let Celtic down too often; his departure won't sting

As Olivier Ntcham appears to be closing in on his Celtic exit, you couldn’t be blamed for not caring all that much.

The Scottish Sun reported last night that Ntcham held positive talks with AEK Athens over the weekend. A deal is set to be thrashed out so long as Celtic don’t decide to trigger the one-year extension on his contract.

However, as things stand, we’ve no real reason to. Not unless the next Celtic boss sees something in the Frenchman that he’s desperate to work with. It’s not out of the question that happens, whilst Ntcham would surely be more open to staying given he isn’t being given an opportunity in one of Europe’s top leagues.

The Frenchman has a fine trophy haul at Celtic and can be proud of what he’s achieved. He’s bagged eight medals during his four years as a Hoops player, but that doesn’t tell the full story.

Ntcham hasn’t truly been a valuable player of the Celtic squad since the first half of the 2019/20 season. Even then, for large spells he underperformed. Outside of his goal against Lazio in Rome, Ntcham was relatively poor throughout the campaign.

Olivier Ntcham could’ve been a Celtic great; his attitude hasn’t helped him

He’s been disappointing with his remarks in the press throughout his time here too. In the summer of 2019 when we were preparing for our nine-in-a-row charge, Ntcham cranked up exit rumours. He claimed he was too good for Scottish football and that he would thrive in Ligue 1 [L’Equipe].

He would follow that up with a campaign that saw him score one goal and bag two assists. That’s despite being given consistent opportunities to shine. It was no wonder he was out of the picture before his loan spell in Marseille, where he also flopped.