BARKAS SWOOP

Celtic set to clinch £5m Greece keeper Vasilis

CELTIC were last night closing in on the £5million capture of Greece international goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas.

As Sportsmail exclusively revealed earlier this month, the Parkhead club were keen on landing the AEK Athens player and the 26-year-old is expected to jet into Glasgow in the coming days to sign a four-year contract.

Neil Lennon turned his attention to Barkas after failing to land

Fraser Forster on a permanent deal after a loan spell from Southampton last season.

The Scottish champions also lost veteran keeper Craig Gordon, who returned to Hearts this summer for the promise of more regular first-team football at Tynecastle.

Now 6ft 5ins Barkas (right), who faced Celtic in the Champions League qualifiers with AEK in 2018, is set to become the club’s new No1 ahead of Scott Bain.

Lennon, meanwhile, hailed Leigh Griffiths and Patryk Klimala after a 3-1 friendly win over Hibs yesterday — but hopes to have

positive news this week over his pursuit of West Ham forward Albian Ajeti on a season-long loan plus an option to buy in 2021. Griffiths saw a goalbound effort knocked over the line by team-mate Klimala before sending in a corner that the Polish striker headed in from close range to complete the home victory over Hibs. The score had been level at 1-1 with Josh Doig’s opener for Hibs levelled by Karamoko Dembele, before Griffiths came on to make his first appearance since being criticised for returning overweight from lockdown. Afterwards, though, Lennon said: ‘Leigh was great. He looks great and it’s the best I’ve seen him in a long time, in terms of his conditioning. ‘I’m delighted with his response in terms of what we’ve asked of him. ‘He just has to maintain it now and he will be a real asset for us — no question. Leigh has missed a lot of football over the last few years but, at 29, he is still at his peak. ‘Will he be ready for Hamilton on Sunday? We will see how he is in the next few days and how he is feeling. ‘He thinks he might need a week to ten days, or something like that. But we will gauge that as we go. ‘That game will have done both

Leigh and Patryk Klimala the world of good. Klimala worked hard again. There are aspects of his game he needs to improve on but you can see a sea change in his demeanour and he’s getting used to the British game now. ‘But you can’t have enough good strikers in the building. It doesn’t change the fact we will look to bring one in.’

Asked if he was aware if the Ajeti deal was moving towards a conclusion, Lennon replied: ‘I’m not aware of it. Hopefully we will have some sort of resolution this week.’ Lennon was also left delighted by the performance and contribution of 17-year-old goalscorer Dembele against Hibs. ‘We want him around the first-team squad this season,’ said the Celtic boss, whose side kick off their bid for ten-in-a-row at home to Hamilton Accies on Sunday afternoon. ‘He’s at the stage now when he is going to be training with us all the time. ‘He may dip in and out and we just need to be careful with him as he’s still only 17. ‘But I was delighted with what I saw from him. He scored and he helped assist the second goal. ‘He’s looking stronger as he goes along and the more he trains with the first team the better he will get.’