Jeremie Frimpong shockingly left Celtic last month for Bayer Leverkusen for a transfer fee which could rise up to £11.5 million. There had not been any indication that the youngster was unhappy with life at Parkhead with all the exit rumours surrounding the likes of Odsonne Edouard, Olivier Ntcham and Ryan Christie.
It is not hard to see why he would decide to leave in the middle of the season though. As things stand, the Hoops are very likely to end the season without a trophy. And the opportunity to move to one of the biggest teams in the Bundesliga was perhaps too good to turn down. Signed from Manchester City for just £300,000 a couple of summers ago, you can also see why the club decided to let him leave. In the end, it made sense for all parties involved.
You have to feel though that he would have remained at the club if they were in the thick of things and challenging for the title. But as things stand, Neil Lennon’s side are 21 points behind their Glasgow rivals. And one of the biggest reasons for that was their warm weather training trip to Dubai.
Frimpong has opened up about it in an interview with The Athletic and as cited by Glasgow Times:
"“The sun was really nice, the hotel food was so nice as well. But I was just focused on training.“For me and the Celtic guys it was a good training camp, we worked hard, and I was just focused on the football.“Obviously, when we came back there were a lot of things said, and I realise why people were upset, but you just have to focus on you.“Everyone was like me, everyone was focused on the team.“I was the youngest there, and everyone was more experienced than me, so they were all like that.”"
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This does not mean that Celtic should not have cancelled the Dubai trip
While many had questioned how seriously the players were taking the thing after certain pictures emerged, it looks like they were certainly preparing for a title charge after returning from Dubai.
That does not make the timing of it any better though. As expected, one of the players ended up testing positive after returning. As a result, Neil Lennon, John Kennedy and 13 more players had to isolate. Clearly, the club should have never flown aboard in the middle of a global pandemic.
Admittedly, Celtic were in a bad spot in the league even then, it was at least salvageable. But after managing just a single win in the month of January, things were as good as over as the gap with the Rangers was too big.