Jeremie Frimpong has wanted to leave Celtic for 'six or seven weeks', according to Neil Lennon, who today revealed the player is abroad talking with another club.

The Dutch kid made it clear he wanted to leave Parkhead recently and is set to depart, with reports claiming Bayer Leverkusen are close to signing him.

Celtic manager Lennon admitted he and his coaching staff were disappointed to be losing the defender and that the club attempted to offer him a new deal to keep him in Glasgow. However the former Manchester City youngster opted to exercise his right to talk to other clubs and looks to be on his way out the door.

"Jerry is abroad at the minute speaking to a club," Lennon revealed. "That deal looks like it might go through. This has been in the background for the last six or seven weeks, the club have made strides to renegotiate with Jeremie and his representatives and that wasn't the case.

"The player made it clear to me, to Nick [Hammond] to the board that he wanted to leave. I wouldn't say he was unhappy, just ambitious maybe or he wanted to try something else and progress his career at another club. We're obviously very disappointed because we did everything we could to try and entice the player to stay but he made it clear quite a while ago that his ambition was to leave."