Marian Shved has slammed Neil Lennon over his broken Celtic promise as he gets set to come up against his former club.
The Hoops signed the attacker - who will turn out for Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League clash later today - back in 2019 under Brendan Rodgers as he became the first Ukrainian to join the Glasgow club as part of a triple swoop alongside Manny Perez and Andrew Gutman with all three immediately loaned out.
By the time he arrived back at Celtic, Rodgers was gone and Lennon was in the hot seat and by 2021, the winger departed Parkhead for a new adventure in Belgium with Mechelen before heading back to his homeland on a long-term contract. He's made an instant impact scoring a double in the group stage opener at RB Leipzig while he scored last time out to spark a domestic comeback ahead of the showdown with his former club.
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Ahead of the game, Shved has opened up on the broken promises he claimed Lennon did not keep as he gets set to come up against his former employers.
Shved explained: “I remember once I sat with the coach and the president [Peter Lawwell] to discuss the situation because I hadn’t played in maybe half a year. The coach said, ‘Yes, of course, I think I will give you chances to play’.
“We shook hands together, but after this I didn’t play in the team. Celtic at this time had very good results. All the time they were winning.
"The president supported me. That’s very true. Maybe the president couldn’t say anything to the coach because they had good results. Maybe that is why there was no change.
"It was still frustrating. I was training very well and tried to show that I could play but it didn’t happen. The problem is that he (Lennon) promised me, but nothing happened and nothing changed.
“It happened, so you can’t change anything. It was only the decision of the coach. It wasn’t a decision of the club or the supporters, but it’s difficult to say how this happened.
"I knew the coach had changed. It doesn’t matter who is the new coach, when you go to a new team you have to show your best conditions in training.
“Of course, maybe if it was another coach, it would have been a different situation. Maybe I would have played more often but it’s happened. Now it’s history. Celtic is a really big club and, when the coach and the club wanted to make the transfer happen, it was okay."
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