Raising the standard
Lennon hails Hammond’s role in arrival of fantastic four Ajeti, Duffy, Turnbull and Barkas, insisting it proves Celtic’s recruitment is...
DURING a transfer window dominated by talk of who might leave Celtic, Neil Lennon reckons it’s time to celebrate a marked upgrade in the club’s recruitment work. Although Lennon’s title-winning squad did not obviously require major surgery this summer, four new faces have arrived and made an instant impression.
Albian Ajeti’s strike rate has impressed since a £5million move from West Ham, while Shane Duffy has slotted straight into the heart of the defence after moving on loan from Brighton.
At £5m, Greek goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas did not come cheap but he has started to soothe the worries stirred by the failure to lure Fraser Forster back to Glasgow.
And while David Turnbull is still waiting for his first start, his impact from the bench in last weekend’s win over Hibs was striking. It would be no surprise to see the former Motherwell midfielder find his way into the starting XI for today’s Premiership clash at St Johnstone.
Tomorrow, Lennon hopes to add the final piece of the jigsaw by signing a left-sided player to vie with Greg Taylor.
No matter what transpires before the midnight transfer deadline, he believes the club’s head of football operations Nick Hammond deserves credit for raising standards in identifying talent.
Under his predecessor Brendan
Rodgers, the club
Nick and his staff and scouts have been working tirelessly
attracted criticism for wasting money on the likes of Marvin Compper and Eboue Kouassi.
Brought in when former head of recruitment Lee Congerton followed Rodgers to Leicester, Hammond’s work is starting to bear fruit.
‘I think our business has been very good,’ said Lennon. ‘Nick has had more time to install the infrastructure behind the scenes. That took a mountain of work and he and his staff and scouts have been working tirelessly.
‘We’ve been trying to get the right fit at the right price and I think they have done a remarkable job.
‘Albian has been a fantastic piece of business. We are disappointed he’s missing out through injury at the moment but that was always a risk with him not playing much football at West Ham.
‘Barkas is an international goalkeeper and I’m delighted with him. We had the blow of losing Fraser but we’ve got a really good goalkeeper in who was superb on Thursday (in the Europa League qualifying win against Sarajevo).
‘Turnbull is a great young talent, we are delighted with him, and Duffy has been immense.
‘You’ve also got (Mohamed) Elyounoussi who we’ve managed to keep on loan and he is now starting to show some real consistent form.’
After exiting the Champions League qualifiers to Ferencvaros, Lennon vented his frustration at those squad players ayers he felt might be trying to work rk their ticket out ut of the club.
Speculation n has hovered d on the futures s of Odsonne e Edouard, Kris s Ajer and Olivier er Ntcham, yet all remained Celtic eltic players going into nto the last 48 hours of the transfer window. w.
When the deadline dli passes at midnight tomorrow, Lennon suspects they will all be happy and ready to focus on the challenge of AC Milan, Lille and Sparta Prague in their Europa League group.
Celtic’s status as top seeds may have counted for little as they were dealt a tough section at UEFA’s draw on Friday but Lennon sees an upside to such a challenging group.
He believes there is enough glamour and variety there to persuade his most valuable players that it’s worth sticking around. He continued: ‘Getting into the
group stage changes the whole landscape of the season. And wit with the quality of the th teams in the group, gr it’s something th the players will w relish.
‘It’s exciting an and I think it will m make the players thi think: “Yeah, I wan want to be here”. ‘Th ‘Things will hopefu hopefully settle down after Mo Monday. We have a big season domestically and d th that t h huge challenge h ll in front of us in Europe.
‘That’s something not a lot of clubs can offer.’
Given what his team achieved in Europe last season, Lennon sees no reason for fear. Milan have pedigree and history but they finished sixth in Serie A last season, 12 points adrift of a Lazio side beaten home and away by Celtic. Lille placed fourth in France’s Ligue 1, just behind Rennes, another side who struggled against Celtic last term, taking just one point from a possible six.
Rich enough to have made a £16m pitch for Rangers’ gers’
Alfredo Morelos elos before ultitimately signing ng
Jonathan n
David from m
Gent for £28m, , the French h outfit are e trying to o spend their ir way towards ds improvement.
It’s harder er to gauge Sparta Prague’s level but their ir manager
Vaclav Kotal has h already l d fi fired d off ff an early dart in Celtic’s direction by describing the Scottish champion as the ‘most playable’ in the section. Lennon is unconcerned.
‘I think the pressure is always on the qualifying,’ he added. ‘Get there and you can go and enjoy the group. We did that last season and I think this group is very similar with French, Italian and an Eastern European team too.
‘Hopefully that experience will stand us in good stead. The one ingredient missing is the packed houses at Parkhead which is a major help for us. ‘We maximised the hom home advantage last yea year and that’s so something we will tr try to do again.’ Match night one in Group H will see Milan visit Glasgow, with ve veteran striker Zla Zlatan Ibrahimovic the star attraction. Re R e m a r k a b l y, Lennon actually went up again against Ibrahimovic early in his Celtic playing career i in a Champions Ch League qualifier against Ajax. Thrown on as a late substitute as the Dutch side tried to overturn a 3-1 reverse from the first leg in Amsterdam, the striker for once fell short but made an impression on his opponents. ‘I wasn’t really aware of him before then but we all were afterwards because he was superb,’ recalled Lennon. ‘He has gone on to become one of the best players in the world over the last 20 years. ‘He is a huge personality but he backs it up and has done so throughout his career. At 39, he is still a physical specimen and a class player.
‘He is still playing at a supremely high level. And wherever he has gone he has had a massive impact.’ Following today’s game in Perth, Celtic will step back for the
We really maximised the home advantage last year and that’s something we will try to do again
international break but with a hectic schedule coming out of what will be a triple-header of games for his Scotland players Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie and Taylor, there is a certain level of anxiety.
‘We only got back from Bosnia on Friday and we’ve travelled again to be overnight in Perth because it’s an early kick-off,’ said Lennon. ‘It’s a really quick turnaround.
‘It’s another 10 days of concerns and worry that they don’t pick up any injuries, lose players for any length of time.’
First up after the break is a showdown with Rangers, which will have an unusual feel owing to the lack of the crowd. After that comes the Milan game then Aberdeen, Lille, a Scottish Cup semi against the Dons and then Sparta Prague.
The pace is relentless but Lennon can’t wait. He enthused: ‘I think it’s a fantastic draw. People will say it’s a difficult group but I think it’s a brilliant group.
‘It will be like a Champions League group — at one stage it would have been. The quality of teams in the group, it’s exciting, and the players are really relishing the challenge that lies ahead.
‘Domestically, we know what our incentives are, too. We’ve a deep enough squad and we’ll need it. I’ve been really pleased with what we have brought in.’