Celtic’s plans for next season are at an advanced stage- with Neil Lennon fully involved.
Seven weeks after the final SPFL fixture the hoops will be involved in European qualifiers with pre-season training and contract details to be resolved.
Scott Sinclair, Mikael Lustig and Dedryck Boyata are out of contract in a couple of weeks although Celtic have 12 month options on Sinclair and Lustig while five players on loan will return to their parent clubs leaving the current squad thin on quality.
After three poor transfer windows everyone at the club is well aware of how important the summer will be as John Kennedy revealed.
He told the Evening Times:
Neil has come in and he is looking at the squad. We have sat down and we have had meetings about next season, if everything goes to plan, and what it might be.
There is a bit of work to be done, there’s no getting away from that. A bit of work in terms of planning, which the club will continue.
Hopefully, when that happens, it’ll be pretty smooth and we’ll hit the ground running next season.
Neil has been terrific since he’s come in. He’s in a position where you don’t know what the final outcome is going to be and it’s the same for myself.
In football, you never know what can happen, so, ultimately, myself, Neil, Damien and Stevie Woods just have to go out and deliver in terms of results, leagues and, hopefully, the cup.
But Neil has treated the job like he’s going to be in it and doing all of the work he can.
He’s involved in terms with, from his perspective, what the club might need, giving his opinion on things and the club has good support behind that who will continue to work and whatever it throws up in the summer, there will be enough options there that whoever is making the decisions will be able to do so.
Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final against Aberdeen will determine whether Celtic’s season extends into the final week in May and will have a major bearing on Lennon’s prospects of getting the job on a permanent basis.
Andreas Villa-Boas, Robertp Martinez and Rafa Benitez have all been linked with the job in recent weeks but since being appointed as caretaker it has always looked to be Lennon’s job to lose.