Town boss Kieran McKenna expects forward Bersant Celina to stay with the Blues during next week's international break despite Kosovo having friendlies against Burkina Faso and Switzerland.

McKenna says Celina has spoken to the Football Federation of Kosovo and expressed his wish to remain in Suffolk, as he did during November’s international fixtures, for the home game against fellow play-off challengers Plymouth.

“I think he’s had some conversations with them and my understanding is that Bersant’s had some communication with the federation and made it clear that he really wants to stay next week and wants to be involved in a couple of important games that we have,” the Town boss said.

“As I understand it, he’ll be staying with us and available over the next couple of weeks.”

McKenna is a big fan of the 25-year-old on-loan Dijon man, who he has known for some time: “I’ve really enjoyed working with him, he’s a player who I knew from his time as a youth player at Manchester City, from playing against him originally when I was at Tottenham when he was maybe 16 or 17 and had just come across from Norway.

“He’s a player I knew well even before coming here, working with him up close, as people can see on a matchday, he’s a fantastic talent from a technical point of view, he’s a boy who loves his football, wants to have the ball at his feet, wants to be on the pitch and have the ball at his feet all the time.

“I think he’s definitely got more to come, we’ve been working really hard with him and he’s been working really hard behind the scenes on different aspects of his game, improving his work off the ball at times and developing his effectiveness in the areas we can get him in and trying to add more effective numbers to his game in terms of goals and assists.

“I think that’s a project that’s still ongoing. We’re really happy with the goal that he got against Burton where he made the long and dynamic run into the penalty box and was able to finish off a move.

“Things like that really, we’ll keep working with him, trying to develop him. He’s got a good level of experience now but I still think there is more to come and he’s certainly a player who is hungry to improve his game, enjoys his football, wants to develop himself, wants to climb back up to play at a high level and he’s someone we enjoy having here at the football club.”

Next weekend’s Portman Road opponents Argyle will be without midfielder Panutche Camara and striker Luke Jephcott due to international calls from Guinea-Bissau squad and the Wales U21s respectively.

McKenna isn’t aware that any of his players will be called up during the international break: “I’ve not had anything else through.”

Photo: Matchday Images

Europablue added 15:56 - Mar 17 Did the interviewer not think of asking if McKenna would be trying to sign Celina?
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pennblue added 16:01 - Mar 17 "McKenna: Celina Set to Stay With Town" - can you just change the headline to be this please? He belongs here, this is his home.
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Bazza8564 added 16:33 - Mar 17 I hope Kosovo play ball, and we still have him. Certainly we need to win that Plymouth game (and the one before) so his absence would be really unfortunate. The comments above talk about Celina staying, that's obviously on all of our minds, but I think we all know that decisions on that are for the end of the season and that nothing will have been done until we know definitely which league we are going to be in, and his host's club's wishes on his future. Ive heard rumors of £21k a week, most of which i'm assuming Dijon are covering, and whilst it would be awesome to think of him staying, there will be a lot of things that will need to fall right for that to happen. We can only hope. COYB

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Fat_Boy_Tim added 17:18 - Mar 17 You've got to say that if he can stay next season, even if it's another loan on adjusted terms with Dijon he would benefit massively from a full pre-season with KM and being settled in the same area. We would benefit too from a fully focused, fully fit, properly coached Celina. KM is making our players far more consistent in their form and levels and Celina could rip up League 1 or the Championship if he was at his best week in week out.

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