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WBA not happy with Lennon


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West Bromwich Albion have angrily let fly at Celtic boss Neil Lennon over his treatment of Oliver Burke during his loan spell at Parkhead.

The £15million winger has been linked with a return to Glasgow, but the Baggies insist he won’t be going anywhere near the Scottish champions again.

Burke, 22, joined Celtic in January during Brendan Rodgers tenure.

Rodgers departed to join Leicester City at the end of February and former Hibs boss Lennon returned for a second stint as Bhoys boss.

Burke would score four goals in 14 games for the treble winners, but West Brom technical director Luke Dowling has blasted Lennon’s treatment of Burke, and vowed that there will be no return.


“He won’t be going anywhere near Celtic with the current manager,” said Dowling, on the day West Brom formally unveiled new boss Slaven Bilic.


“We sent Oli to Celtic in good faith with Brendan Rodgers and Lee Congleton some really good people up there that wanted to take Olly and wanted to play him. They wanted to make him a better player than he currently is.

“Once Brendan left to go to Leicester the treatment he got from the manager that’s in place now is something we don’t expect for one of our players.

“He won’t be going anywhere near Celtic FC. We currently have a new manager that’s excited to start working and looking at Oli.”


Neil Lennon arrives at Glasgow Airport as his side prepare to fly out to Austria (Image: SNS Group)  
Asked to elaborate on the issue north of the border, Dowling added: "They know what’s gone on and Oli certainly knows what’s gone on.

“It’s just something we’re not happy with at all.”


Burke celebrates scoring for Scotland earlier this month (Image: 2019 Getty Images)  
Burke made a rapid rise at Nottingham Forest as a teenager, earning a £15million move to RB Leipzig.

Albion paid a similar figure while still in the Premier League and Dowling is hoping that, with a new opportunity to impress and stability at the Hawthorns, Burke will fly in 2019-20.

"We believe he’s got an opportunity back here with a new manager in place.

"If you look at the two fees and the amount of games he’s actually started. When West Brom bought him look at the games he’d started - I think there was only 19 in his career. Nineteen games and you’ve been sold twice for £15million.

"There was big expectation when Oli came here. Naturally you’re going to get that when people pay that amount of money for you, but I don’t believe he really got the best chance to perform here.

"One minute he’s told he’s a right winger, next minute he’s a centre-forward, then he couldn’t do that because he's told he couldn’t play with his back to goal.

"He’s had mixed messages and that’s why we thought going up to work with Brendan would be a good period for him to come back a better player and to improve on his game.

"But unfortunately that wasn’t to be. [Now] He needs stability."
 
 
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