Neil Lennon has confirmed that Celtic won’t change their signing policy even if they reach the reach the riches of the Champions League.
Victory tonight over Helsingborg would give the club £15m but won’t see a return to the big spending days of a decade ago that brought Lennon, John Hartson and Chris Sutton to the club in £6m deals.
Jordan Rhodes has been linked to the club but with Huddersfield rating their Scotland striker in the £5m plus range any move to Celtic can be dismissed.
Since Lennon took charge of Celtic there has been an unofficial £2.5m transfer cap with the majority of his signings coming in around the £1m mark.
Victor Wanyama, Emilio Izaguirre and Beram Kayal were all in that price range with the other key feature being that they were under 25 with sell-on values.
Confirming his transfer strategy Lennon said: “We’ve got options lined up if we get through and even if we don’t get through. We’ll still go through those players.
“We’re not talking about £5m players, we’re talking about players who fit the DNA we’ve been looking for over the last couple of years.
“We have the foundations in place so we can maybe do a bit of business in the last couple of days.
“We’ve let off from the chase on players for a while and we’ve not made any significant inroads on anybody yet.
“I have just been concentrating on the start of the season. It’s been pretty hectic and hopefully fruitful at the end of Wednesday night.”
Lennon has confirmed that Willy Boly of Auxerre and Rosenborg’s Markus Henriksen are amongst the players he is monitoring.
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Good to hear, I don’t think Rhodes is worth the money being asked, still far from proven at top level. Doesn’t appear to have a great deal of pace and I am certain we can get better value for money elsewhere.
We still have several players we should be looking to move on to create space for either new players or to allow young guns the opportunity to show what they can do.
williebhoy Says
Especially when we sold Ki, a player of proven class, for just over £6m. I am right behind Celtic to stay away from a bloated and over-inflated English market. Just take advantage to sell on to it when we can and get a wee share of the disproportionate sums of money given to it.
H H
Totally agree….no point in changes our policy. Rhodes looks good but no better than what we have. Jhonny Russell might fit the bill at 2 mill perhaps but I would rather see young Watt get his chance. I would however LOVE to see the Henriksen deal go through and of course we need to find another Bobo Balde imo.
Good luck tonight Hoops, a good solid, professional performance will do. I’d take o-o right now tbh but I feel we have the beatin of this mob anyway.
1 NL YNWA HH
I’m in favour of of our buying young players with potentially good sell-on value.
However, I’m far from convinced that buying ONLY young players is the most efficient way to make this idea work. I think a couple of experienced players in key positions, like CH for example, would really speed up the process of the young players settling in and adapting to the kick and rush of Scottish football.
When we buy young players, everybody talks about finding a new Henrik. But they seem to forget that Henrik improved as a player at Celtic by playing with older, established professionals.
Good point about Henke. Another one is also he was 25 when he came here was he not? Know it wasn’t the same .com era but to any non novice of the game, he also wasn’t an unknown really so he’d not really fit in with the current policy these days.
Not saying for a second bankrupt ourselves but if the right player comes up at the right price I think exceptions should be made. Anyways, as wee Pixie Lott says, it’s all about tonight COYBIG!!!
I would n’t want to see a striker come in and get picked ahead of Watt , unless he was better than hooper and our new 1st choice , same goes for other positions unless hes gonna be the best in that position I’d rather see the young boys given a chance.
I think Lenny and the scouting staff have done pretty well so far in the transfer market (ahem bangura)…. I totally agree with the clubs policy and while I’d like a marquee signing, I love a gem that surprises and shines! The futures bright but its not orange! HH!
good policy dont get into to much debt buy within our means going to match tonight hope Watt starts with Hooper 3-0 to the hoops mon the Celts
Totally agree with every comment on here the price for Rhodes is a joke there is certainly better Players than him away from the English market at a fraction of his price and good luck to the bhoys tonight hail hail
Jordan Rhodes is better than what we have. If we can get him for three million with add ins we should do it. Immense potential. He is Shearer like and would provide everything we need in a striker.
Can’t say I’m to disappointed wouldn’t want anything getting in the way of Tony Watts progress although a big powerful forward would help us.
Rhodes Hopper Stokes and Watt very similar in stature needing power and height upfront ala John Hartson type.