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Neil Lennon- Izaguirre gives me the heeby-jeebies!

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Emilio Izaguirre Celtic newsNeil Lennon has admitted that Emilio Izaguirre’s love for the game gives him the ‘heeby-jeebies’.

The Honduran full-back has been one of Celtic’s best players this season and turned in another five star performance against Rangers on Sunday highlighted by his lung-bursting run and pass for Gary Hooper’s second goal.

Izaguirre cost Celtic £800,000 when he was signed from Montagua during the summer and looks like one of the club’s best ever value for money signings.

“Izaguirre is having an incredible season,” Lennon told TalkSport listeners this morning on the Alan Brazil Breakfast Show. “He gives me the heeby-jeebies sometimes because he just wants to play. He does Cruyff turns in his own box at times but he’s been wonderful.

“We got him from Honduras, John Park our chief scout saw him playing at the World Cup and brought us some dvd’s, we had a good look at him and thought that he looked decent.

“You just don’t know what you are going to get when you sign someone like that, you don’t know what their temperament and character is going to be like.

“We’re very lucky because the group that we have is very solid, there are no prima-dona’s in there. They are very very hungry which is important after the couple of seasons that we’ve had.”

Izaguirre is playing behind Kris Commons with Lennon just as thrilled with the impact that his latest signing has made.

“I played with Kris at Nottingham Forest in 2007,” the Celtic boss added. “I liked him then but he’s improved so much since then. We got a great bit of business, we got him for £300,000 and he’s improved a great deal since I played with him.

“He has a great eye for a goal, he can beat a player, has great delivery from wide areas and can even play off the strikers. He’s 27 so we’ve got him coming into his peak year.

“He has a good temperament which is very important when you come to play in Glasgow, at the minute nothing seems to faze him.”

Lennon himself certainly showed the temperament to succeed and that seems to be one of the first qualities that he looks for in a player.

Hunger and temperament are phrases that the Celtic boss uses regularly during interviews rather than grand designs or notions of playing the beautiful game Barcelona style.

Lennon’s side like to play the game at pace but first and foremost they must have the mentality to succeed in the most demanding of environments.

“It’s a newish team who have come a long way in a short period of time,” he explained. “We are on a decent unbeaten run but confidence is everything in this game. “There was a lack of mentality around the club for 18 months and that was something that had to be addressed last summer.

“We’re not there yet but we’re turning the corner slowly but surely.

“You have to earn the right to play football in any match, particularly in Old Firm games. The midfield is a huge component of those games and that was an area we needed to strengthen and we have a very strong settled midfield and real competition for places.

“There is pressure on every time you put a Celtic shirt on, the expectation levels are huge, as the season progresses the expectation levels will rise.

“On Sunday we’re at Motherwell who got a bit of a doing at Ibrox but have bounced back with two wins.

“Fir Park is notoriously a difficult ground to go and get a win at, I’m sure it’ll be no different on Sunday.”

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