LENNY’S TRANSFER ADMISSION
NEIL LENNON accepts he might not get a penny of the Jeremie Frimpong £11.5million transfer fee to spend on new players.
The Celtic manager, who witnessed the champions win their first game of 2021 with a 2-0 success over Hamilton Accies last night, identified the defensive areas he needs to fill with the recruitment window ready to close on Monday.
Frimpong’s big-money move to Bundesliga outfit Bayer Leverkusen has left the Irishman short in the right-back area and there is an urgent need to bring in another centre-back following the long-term injury to Christopher Jullien who has a knee problem.
However, fans expecting Lennon to splash out to strengthen his squad for the next four months of the campaign will be disappointed.
The Hoops gaffer, speaking to Glasgow Live, admitted: “Look, we’ve not been immune to this pandemic financially, so we felt it was good business and the timing of the Frimpong deal was the right thing to do.
“Whether we have money to spend, we’ll see, because there might be options that come up over the next couple of days that we don’t expect.
“We are looking at one or two players to bring in.
“Christopher is out now for a long period of time and obviously Jeremie has gone, as well.
“So, we might look at the full-back and centre-half area.”
One player who has been identified as a target is Preston’s left-sided back-four operator Ben Davies who is rated in the £2.5million bracket by the Deepdale club, as CQN reported yesterday.
Nir Bitton was again pressed into service as a makeshift central defender against Accies, but it is clear the Israeli international is more comfortable in midfield.