Johannes Hoff Thorup confirmed Celtic target Adam Idah was left out of Norwich City’s 2-2 Hoffenheim friendly on Tuesday for a disciplinary matter following his Austrian no show.
The Republic of Ireland international has been the subject of intense summer transfer speculation touting him with a Bhoys’ return, after his goals helped land a league and cup double in a successful loan stint.
Idah failed to report on time on Sunday to depart with the rest of the City squad for Austria, and was then forced to dash to London to catch a solo flight to Munich to arrive late into camp.
Thorup revealed Idah had apologised for his lapse, but made it clear the striker’s actions will not be tolerated after Tuesday’s friendly against the Bundesliga club.
“He reported late for the flight on Sunday morning for reasons that should never happen,” said the Dane. “So I spoke to him the other night. And of course we told him that he had to come to Austria as fast as possible. He came during the night and I spoke to him again.
“I said ‘We as a group of players want to create a protecting environment and this can never happen’. You cannot be a part of the game squad for this game.
“He was sad about the situation and apologised and so on. We will get him back into the group. But it’s also an important message for us to say that there will be consequences when you don’t do your stuff. (Will he be disciplined?) Yes, we will handle that internally.”
Thorup admits the constant speculation around the forward’s future could have been a factor.
“Of course, it’d be fair to say because he is a young boy. And this is maybe the first time in his career where there is so much attention on him and so many media stories and so on,” he said. “I can completely understand that can be difficult for a football player to handle.
“So it will take some more conversations with him. And we will of course integrate him again and everyone will be there to support him.
“But it’s also important for us to make it very, very clear that we have our rules internally. If you step out of that and do something that is not aligned with that then of course you cannot play with the rest of the group.
“But he is a good boy and I don’t think it was on purpose. It was just too much going on.”
Thorup insisted he did not feel personally let down by Idah, after outlining earlier in pre-season he had already built up a good rapport with the striker.
“Not really, I would say being a football coach sometimes is a little bit like being a parent. You just have to forgive, but you have to accept that there will be mistakes once in a while,” he said. “And we don’t want to create an environment where you cannot make mistakes.
“But it’s important for us to also make very, very clear to whoever the person is if you do something that is not how we want it to be then there will be consequences.
“We handle that internally. And then we find a good solution. And hopefully he’ll be back again.”
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