Neil Lennon has explained Celtic’s short lived interest in Danny Simpson.
The defender is currently a free agent and was linked with a trial stint at Celtic in The Sun soon after last week’s Champions League win over FK Sarajevo.
With Mikael Lustig, Cristian Gamboa and Jeremy Toljan moving on since the end of last season the hoops are in the market for a right back.
Simpson only started three EPL matches for Leicester last season with a conviction for domestic violence attracting criticism on line from a number of Celtic fans.
The imminent signing of Hatem Abd Elhamed has closed that door with the Celtic boss explaining the timescale at his media conference this afternoon.
Leicestershire Live reported the Celtic boss saying:
A fee for Hatem has been agreed, Hopefully it goes through soon. It’s subject to a work permit, visa application and medical and that’s ongoing at the minute. He’s strong defensively, comfortable on the ball and is very quick. I think we’re getting a good player who’s hungry and even though people look at his age, he’s a fresh 28. We’ve been very impressed with what we’ve seen from him.
On Danny, we were down the line with Hatem and one or two other options so we just felt it would be futile to bring Danny in if he sees us bringing in other players in his specialised position.
Celtic have until 11pm to register any new signings for tomorrow’s match with Nomme Kalju but it seems unlikely that any new faces will be involved.
With no more friendlies planned it looks like Lennon will mainly be going with the players that got through the first round qualifier against FK Sarajevo.
