Neil Lennon has confirmed that Celtic are in advanced talks to sell Ki Sung-Yueng.
Swansea are believed to be favourites to sign the midfielder who starred for South Korea as they lifted the bronze medal at the London Olympics.
A fee in the region of £8m is required to do business with Celtic with Lennon confirming that talks are well underway without naming the club involved.
“We are in advances discussions with a club at the minute and we are hoping the deal will go through,” Lennon revealed in Helsingborg.
“I am not at liberty to say (if it’s Swansea) but there may be interest from other clubs as well.
“He is not here, we have given him a bit of extra time because he has a lot to think about.
“He has only 15 months left on his contract and we feel it is a good offer and good business on our side.
“It is unfortunate to lose a quality player but that has been our strategy at the club for the last two or three years, cultivate these players and eventually move them on if they want to go.”
Scott Brown, Paddy McCourt, Gary Hooper and James Forrest all travelled with Celtic to Sweden with Johan Mjallby delivering an upbeat report on their fitness.
“We have Scott Brown, James Forrest, Paddy McCourt and Gary Hooper all travelling,” Lennon’s assistant confirmed. “We are going to train later on at the stadium and see how they are. Some of them were training (on Sunday) and they looked good. This is a big game and the players want to be part of that.
“You have James Forrest with his pace, Scott Brown is the skipper, Paddy McCourt can score from nothing, more or less, and Gary Hooper has been banging in goals for us so it would be nice to have all of them fit, but we will have to wait and see.”
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8mil for Ki would be great business, although all other media outlets are quote a smaller fee than that, around 6mil. Although it is a bit frustrating that Lennon is saying he won’t be able to use any of it to get the striker and CB we really need. Helsingborgs lose a striker and are able to go out and replace him within a few days. Come on PL, go out and get us what we need!!!!
Having said all that I realize nothing will be done before the Helsingbors matches. If we progress to the next stage, I pray we see some kind of movement. If we are only going after youngsters with potential, maybe Jordan Rhodes is a good option?? Mon’ the hoops!
I have no problems at all with the strategy, but there are a few others I’d have sold first…although comments about the player wanting to go do make a difference. But then others have previously intimated they would like to try elsewhere, game time & a pay rise changes minds.
At 23 Ki has his best years ahead of him, we hopefully have a % sell on clause in his contract as I feel he is sure to go onto better than Swansea and much more £££’s.
The buy cheap / young and sell high strategy will only work if we continue to replace quality with better quality. We have offloaded over a dozen players from the payroll and SHOULD be able to bring in at least one player without affecting our overall budget. We still have more deadwood we could easily do without who contribute next to nothing to the side…ship them out or free them but make room for better.
The money should be invested straight away, as should any money made from europe, if we done it every year we would be making an impact in europe in no time
It would be great mate to re-invest all the money but debt has to be payed first or you end up with a billionaire from motherwell or a yorkshire idiot buying you, I know what I want our team are fine without killing the club hail hail
If the available central defenders stay fit or don’t get suspensions,then we are ok at the back. However, as we have seen, it won’t be the case throughout the course of a season so a signing is. Required in that position as a matter of some urgency. As far as a striker is concerned, if we get upwards of 5,5M for Ki, then there is no reason why we don’t get Rhodes who would be a significant player for years to come. Get it sorted please.
Ki to Liverpool. £6.3M
Were did that come from
I know where you are coming from. But we can still operate in the black without european money which is a bonus. What im saying is, if we are garaunteed say 10 million from group stages then that should be spent to make us stronger still and so on every year, as for ki, there is no reason that the 6-8 shouldnt be spent on 1 or 2 big names
Am with you on buying players once were in the group stages because your correct European cash should be extra money in the pot and should be used to improve the 1st team and not squad fillers we need a jonny Russell or Jordan rhodes and a quality defender if there is one available . Hail hail
I wont be far off the mark in thinking we would be in line for 12m+ every time we qualify for the group stages. All profits that we recieve on players along with the european money should be reinvested, everything else should more than cover the running costs
Time to start spending mate great 2nd half were on the way hail hail