Lennon: We can afford a £6m signing
The £2.5m paid for Gary Hooper and Teemu Pukki is the record fee paid for a player under Lennon with the policy very much geared towards young emerging talent.
Over the last 24 hours Celtic have been linked with Steven Fletcher with some suggestions that he could become a Celtic player for half the £12m fee that Martin O’Neill paid to bring him from Wolves.
Sunderland wouldn’t sell at that price to a Premiership club but with Gus Poyet needing to raise cash before he can bring in his own players selling Fletcher to Celtic could become an option.
“Could we afford to spend £6million for one player? Yes, we could,” Lennon admitted as he discussed a possible move for Fletcher.
“I know transfer fees change over the years but he is a youngish player still so I would imagine it might not be £6million we are talking about.
“He is a player that I think most teams in Britain would like but affordability might be a problem for us though”.
Lennon has made it known that signing a striker is his priority with the clock starting to tick towards the Champions League qualifiers in July.
Alfred Finnbogason and Leigh Griffiths have also been linked with Celtic with Lennon admitting that no talks have taken place with Sunderland over their Scotland striker.
“No, not at all, it is speculation,” the Celtic boss admitted when he was asked if contact had been made with Sunderland. “I don’t know where this story has come from, I honestly don’t.
!I don’t know why I am sitting here five minutes into my press conference answering questions on him.”