quality only

Lennon wants quality, not quantity for Celtic in transfer window

The Celtic manager says he only wants to recruit players who can take his side on to the next level.

22 May 2011 13:48 GMT

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251386 <!-- Thumbnail Gallery --> Neil Lennon will fine-tune his Celtic squad as he plans for more trophy success. Pic: © SNS Group
Neil Lennon has said that he already knows how he wants to improve his Celtic team in the close season and will add high quality players to his squad when he conducts his transfer business.

Lennon was given a boost on Saturday when Celtic’s majority shareholder Dermot Desmond said that the manager would be offered a long-term contract to remain at the club. The will now begin working to achieve more success next season after lifting the Scottish Cup following the win over Motherwell on Saturday.

The Hoops boss said that he would not be making wholesale changes to his squad when the transfer window opens but hopes to improve the quality in certain areas of the field.

“We're looking to strengthen in two or three areas,” Lennon said. “It won't be the big influx of players that we had at the start of the season.

“We just need that little bit more quality in a couple of areas.”

In the interview with Sky Sports, the manager acknowledged that some players would be leaving Celtic. He has previously confirmed that he has made some players aware that they would be looking for a new club in the summer.

“We'll need to trim the squad as well, which is always a difficult thing to do,” he added. “But we've analysed the areas where we think we can improve and we'll do all we can to bring a little bit more quality to the club.”

Lennon signed fifteen players this season as he reshaped the Celtic squad following Tony Mowbray’s time at the club. Charlie Mulgrew, Cha Du-Ri, Joe Ledley, Daryl Murphy, Efrain Juarez, Gary Hooper, Beram Kayal, Daniel Majstorovic, Emilio Izaguirre, Fraser Forster, Anthony Stokes and Olivier Kapo were all signed last summer, though Kapo left the club after a brief spell. Freddie Ljungberg, Tony Watt and Kris commons were all recruited in January.

 

Yes I want known quality. No past its or people we haven't heard of, yeah kayal, emilio etc have been class but it's really a hit or miss situation with people we haven't heard of.

 

i have every faith in neil and i believe we will only get stronger

 

yeah we need quality he also said it will be hard to find 'gems' like Kayal and Emilio because no-one would've imagined them to play that well.

Think we only need about 3 players a GK a CB and a ST but if we offload players maybe a few more coming in

 

we need 2-3 quality players. no more, no less. spend wisely this summer and we could go very far with this squad and management team.

 

Yeah quality is def what we need and what we deserve. Be good to get a player in who we know has quality and we have heard of. A robbie keane level of a signing. Good to get gems like Kayal etc tho. A top class cb, a gk and a decent striker.

 

I'm really looking forward to see who we sign. We made top class signings of midfielders last season and hooper so we need to make top class signings of a GK, 2 CBs and a big target man.

 

CF, CB, GK

 

We need to keep the core of the squad together. That is the most important thing. Key player like Izzy, Kayal, Kayal, Hooper etc have to be kept.

The squad could do with being trimmed significantly, and get rid of the 'hangers-on'. Guys like Hooiveld, Rasmussen, McGinn etc. No disrespect to these guys, but they probably won't be getting games, so let's move them on.

Hope he does add quality. We don't need quantity.

 

I hope Neily sticks to his word on this. We've been padding out our squad with average joes and 'project players' for too long now. It's time to limit our summer signings to 2 or 3 players but they should be quality players who will immediately go into the first team.

If we do that we'll skelp the Huns arses next season.

 

Top class striker, im talking anything between 20/30 goals a season. 2 CB`s....If we can fix these two areas ...Honestly we will be absolutely fine next season, and i look forward to see how we do in europe!!

 

Need a Goalkeeper for a start vital, Need a CB and a striker.

 

Aye we only need 3/4 players Keeper(or Forster), CB, Stiker or two.

YASS BLACKPOOL

 

GK is a priority, CB who will be put straight into the first team and a striker who will give us 20 to 30 goals a season and we might achieve something in Europe this season

 

I'm happy with the current squad, I wouldnt really want to get rid of many players.

Bring in a new CB, ST and GK and I will be happy,

 

We should sign that guy.. what's his name? Lionel Messi. He should take our team to the next level.

On another note we should sign Cristiano Ronaldo, he's only £158M or something - but his buy out clause could amount to around £870M, surely we can afford that?

 

I reckon, Shay Given, Richard Dunne, another Centre Half and Demba Ba would be perfect.

 

I think it is clear that the positions are: Keeper, Centre-Half & Striker.

If we strengthen with real quality I have no doubt that we could compete in Europe and do very well on the domestic front. I believe we will sign 4 players in total for these 3 positions and perhaps a centre mid if Juarez leaves for cover.

The players that I'd like to see us go for areIn order of preference)

Keeper: 1.Boruc / 2.Given / 3.Forster

Centre-Half: 1. Dunne / 2.Granqvist / 3.Williams

Striker: 1.Long / 2.Benitez / 3.Dembele


Keeper is going to cost around £2m-£3m
Centre half £2m-£3m
Striker £4m-£6m

Approx £10m

...Which is quite a lot especially when we aren't in the Champions League. However if we sold the following players I think we could generate roughly £5m from the lot of them. Which would cover half our overall spend. This makes the purchase of a big money striker like Shane Long quite viable.

Murphy
Hooiveld
McGinn
O'Dea
Rasmussen
Loovens
Zaluska


If Juarez leaves I think we will sign Claros or O'Connor.