OLIVIER NTCHAM’S French farce continued last night when the on-loan Celt couldn’t even get a place on the Marseille bench for the match against Lens.
The midfielder’s temporary switch created uproar at the troubled giants with Portuguese coach Andre Villa-Boas being suspended following his sensational remarks insisting he did NOT want the player.
Ntcham didn’t pacify fans, either, when his comments about his love of Paris Saint-Germain surfaced from an old interview.
The player who cost Celtic £4.5million from Manchester City in June 2017 might have thought he would at least get the opportunity to show what all the fuss was about with a stirring performance in the league outing, but, instead, the 24-year-old frozen-out Hoops star got a seat in the stand.
The Ligue 1 outfit knew a victory was crucial last night while they are anchored a disappointing ninth in the table.
Marseille were two goals ahead with strikes from Florian Thauvin and Arkadiusz Millik before the team suffered a second-half collapse and had to be satisfied with a 2-2 draw
Ntcham will be hoping to get a kick of the ball when PSG, his favourite team, come visiting on Sunday evening.
One former Celt who had better fortune in Ligue 1 in the midweek matches was Timothy Weah who scored his third goal of the season in Lille’s 3-0 win over Bordeaux. The 20-year-old American, who was on loan at the Hoops in 2018/19, netted the opener to keep his side on top of the table.
Ironically, Lille were the only team Celtic managed to beat in their disastrous Europa League Group H campaign. After a 2-2 draw in France in October, Neil Lennon’s men won 3-2 at Parkhead before the turn of the year.
Weah’s side are two points ahead of Lyon and three clear of defending champions PSG in third spot.
