Hibernian striker Florian Kamberi has surprisingly thanked Neil Lennon and wished him and Celtic good luck this season.
There was a reported fall-out between Kamberi and the Hoops boss whilst he was in charge at Hibernian. Lennon had apparently called Kamberi out in front of the Hibernian squad during a meeting. It then reportedly led to the striker leaving in a huff and Lenny being suspended (Scottish Sun).
The true facts of what happened were never revealed by Hibernian. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that there was some bad blood between Lennon and Kamberi.
But despite that, Kamberi appears ready to put it all behind him. Speaking in the Edinburgh Evening News, the big striker has thanked the Celtic boss for all he did for him.
“That is ages ago (the rift). Now everything is fine. I have to thank Neil Lennon because he brought me to Hibs, gave me game-time and for a long time gave me 90 minutes, so I just have to be thankful for what he did for me.
“Now everything is fine between us and I wish him and Celtic very good luck and a good season.
“You will always have ups and downs, especially as a young player, but it has definitely made me stronger for the future.”
Kamberi saga led to an incredible turn of events
You couldn’t write how Lennon got the Celtic job in truth. It was just a number of coincidental happenings that allowed him to slot back into the Parkhead hotseat.
Lennon was the man who brought Kamberi to Scotland from Grasshoppers on a permanent basis last summer. But a number of poor displays were quite rightly pulled up by the Northern Irishman. Whatever happened afterward, it led to Lennon leaving Hibs. Opportunistically, Brendan Rodgers then dumped us for Leicester out of nowhere back in February.
Lennon was deemed a safe pair of hands, and came in to guide us to the treble treble.
You could see in the matches against Hibs that there was some fire in Kamberi’s belly. He clearly felt he had been wronged in some way by the current Celtic boss. He played out of his skin against us, but failed to score in our two trips to Easter Road under Lennon last season.
Now, it looks as though it’s all water under the bridge. Lennon has moved on to bigger and better things, and Kamberi has the talent to do the very same on the pitch in years to come.
It will be interesting to see how the pair greet each other on 28th September when Celtic take the trip to Easter Road once more. But going by Kamberi’s words, things will have cooled over since the last two meetings.
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