‘Tricky’: 27-year-old says Brendan Rodgers has never really told him why he wasn’t picking him for Celtic

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Celtic have had a number of extremely talented players come to the club either on loan or permanently and fail to make an impact.

And it can be for a number of reasons. Maybe the player can’t handle the expectations of needing to win week in, week out. Or it could be that they don’t fit into the system.

Or it could also be the fact that they are simply not good enough. None of those reasons would apply to 27-year-old winger, Charly Musonda.

The former Belgian u21 international was signed by Brendan Rodgers on an 18-month loan deal during his first spell as the Celtic manager.

It is fair to say his arrival sparked a buzz of excitement from the Celtic fans because, at 21, the then-youngster came with a reputation of being one of the hottest properties at Chelsea.

However, after just eight appearances, Musonda’s deal was terminated and he returned to the English Premier League side.

Looking back at his time at Celtic, Musonda said that he was never told by Rodgers exactly why he was suddenly left out of the team.

Musonda said [The Athletic], “We ended up going out the following week (to Zenit), we lost there 3-0.

“And from then on, I didn’t play towards the end of the season and I never really spoke with Brendan Rodgers about why.

“Loans are quite tricky. You can have five of them and only one or two of them are great.

“It depends on a lot of things: on the club you’re going to, the situation, game time, the structure of that club.”

After that Zenit match, Musonda made only two further appearances for Celtic. In a 3-0 Scottish Cup quarter-final win against Morton and a 2-1 away win at Hamilton.

A grand total of 26 minutes was enough to convince Rodgers that after the European defeat, Musonda wasn’t good enough to continue playing for the club.

Why? Well, I guess that’s something that only the Celtic manager can answer.

In other news, 21-year-old ‘elite’ player admits he could sign permanently for Celtic next summer