"Oh he's Scottie Sinclair and he is so wonderful, When he scores a goal, Oh it is beautiful It's magical, When he runs down your wing, He is fast as lightning, It's frightening and it makes all the Bhoys sing, Doh do doh dodo do doodododododo..."

It wasn't all that long ago that you would hear that song being belted out every time Celtic took to the park. The English winger who came up from Aston Villa became an instant fan-favourite at Parkhead on his debut in 2016 when he came on as a substitute and scored the winner against Hearts.

Within a month he'd broken the legendary Jimmy McGrory's 1930s-set record of scoring in five successive opening league matches of the season by scoring in six.

He would go on to be the club's top goalscorer that season and be voted Player of the Year and Player's Player of the Year at Celtic's Player of the Year Award that year as an integral part of Brendan Rodgers' invincible Treble-winning side.

Last night, Celtic played a crunch Europa League playoff tie against Swedish side AIK and Scott Sinclair wasn't even on the bench.

The 30-year-old has scored or assisted at an average of every 1.6 games he has played for Celtic, with 64 goals and 34 assists coming in just 164 appearances, but this season, he's managed a scant 56 minutes of competitive football out of a possible 720. That's five games, all of which he came on as a substitute.

Now there's no denying Sinclair failed to recapture that stellar form of his first season in Glasgow. Despite that, he would still be the club's top goalscorer in his second campaign, bagging 19 in all competitions and contributing valuable assists and link-up play.

Last season (his third) saw him with a slightly lower return of 15 goals, but he seemed to have found a richer vein of form in his all-round game. He was far from finished.

With his three-year contract at an end in May, the club took the option of activating a fourth year, keeping him at Celtic Park for one more season, with Lennon saying: "Scotty will be here for another year. "He has returned a lot of goals for us this season yet again and it's a big boost for the squad."

Now this was either a sign that they intended to cash in on what is still a valuable asset or actually play him, but at the moment it's looking like neither.

Manager Neil Lennon clearly fancies Mikey Johnston instead of Sinclair at the moment and you can't really argue too much with that. The youngster is developing at a frightening rate, as summed up by how much he terrorised the AIK defence last night.

But it's the fact that Lewis Morgan appears to be next in line for that position that really raises question marks.

The 22-year-old has either taken Sinclair's place on the bench or even, as we saw against Motherwell and away to CFR Cluj (when he didn't even travel with the squad), started the game ahead of him. Now, if Morgan was shining as brightly as Johnston, you could understand Lennon's decision-making here, but he's pretty far from hitting those heights.

Worse, the player has yet to convince he's good enough to be wearing a Celtic jersey at all, never mind keeping out a player of Sinclair's ability.

Earlier this month, Lennon addressed the issue, saying: “There was some interest but nothing materialised, so we carry on as normal.

"Scotty will be in the squad and he’s a player who can make a big contribution. He has been unfortunate as at the moment he’s finding it difficult to nail down a place because of the form of others.”

Which sounds fair enough, but is Lewis Morgan's form so strong that there isn't even room for Scott Sinclair on the bench? Or on the plane?

Earlier this month there was supposedly interest in the player from Middlesbrough, Preston and Derby, but with the English transfer window slamming shut, that horse has bolted, at least until January.

Posted by voc1967 on Friday 23 August 2019 - 13:38:02 | Comments (0)  |