Neil Lennon is ready to sit down at the end of the season and negotiate new deals for his star performers.
After starting the season as unknowns signed for commercial reasons Biram Kayal and Emilio Izaguirre have attracted a band of Premiership admirers.
Selling either player would bring in the best part of £10m but Lennon would rather have players on the park than profit in the bank.
“Of course it’s a concern that Izaguirre and Kayal could leave,” he admitted. “We just have to wait and see at the moment, it’s all speculation.
“I don’t have to sell anyone, not at all. We’ll sit down with these players at the end of the season and maybe make them improved offers and take it from there.
“We’d like to think we could try to keep them happy with better deals. Otherwise it would be hard for us to keep them if a big bid does come in. But we’ve had nothing concrete in terms of interest.
“It doesn’t surprise me if there is interest because they are fabulous footballers but I’d be reluctant to sell them.”
Izaguirre and Kayal were part of a mass recruitment campaign at the start of the season funded by some high profile departures.
Amongst Lennon’s first tasks as manager was to sell fans favourites Aiden McGeady and Artur Boruc with Stephen McManus and Marco Fortune following soon after to bring in around £15m.
That money was wisely re-invested with Lennon revealing that his summer re-building job came in under budget.
He added: “Aiden McGeady went for a big fee which we felt made business sense for the football club. All the money from his sale was put back into the team.
“We spent about £10m or £11m but I think in net spending terms there was extra cash left over. We are still in the black in that regard.
“You worry about losing someone like Aiden. With Artur Boruc and Marc-Antoine Fortune leaving, we were letting go of some real quality.
“So you worry if it might hurt you later in the season but so far we’ve covered it all very well.
“Aiden was an excellent player for Celtic and he had been for three or four seasons.
“However we felt that if we could keep Shaun Maloney fit, and with someone like James Forrest there, we could take the sale. It made sense. Keeping McGeady might even have stunted Forrest’s development, who knows?”
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