OLDHAM manager Richie Wellens has told Kundai Benyu that his loan deal can still be a success even though he’s been completely dropped from the squad the past two games and has rarely been seen at all.
Kundai played the first couple of games for Oldham when he made the loan switch in January but since dropped to the bench and has regularly been an unused substitute.
Oldham don’t have the luxury of messing around with their squad which is bad news for Kundai.
“He’s a young player developing and I’ve got no doubts that he’ll go on to be a great player, but it’s been unfortunate for him as the team have been stable and picking up results, so you don’t want to change it too much,” Wellens told the Manchester Evening News.
“In terms of the games where he has been on the bench, it’s been tough to get him on because it’s been games where we’ve been chasing goals. When the game is tight you don’t want to change your central midfielders, you want to change your forwards and your wide men.”
Brendan Rodgers signed Kundai last summer and was going to loan him straight out before admitting he was impressed with the youngster. The Irishman kept him at the club for the first half of the season but he got little game time.
Rodgers wanted the player to go out and gain first team football in the second half of the season and in that respect, the loan has been a complete failure.
The player is due back in July where Rodgers will assess his progress – he would have been better staying at Celtic’s developmental.
It would have been better letting Neil look after the bhoy and he could get first team experience there.