NEIL Lennon has an agreement with Peter Lawwell, the Celtic chief executive, that no January bids will be accepted for any of the club's players without the manager's approval.
Lennon is confident that all of his major players will still be with Celtic at the end of next month's transfer window. Victor Wanyama and Gary Hooper have been the subject of keen speculation about moves to England but, crucially, they have indicated to Lennon they are happy to stay at Parkhead.
Any massive bid would still leave the club with a decision to make, though, and while Lennon acknowledged that other managers inevitably would be interested in his players, he insisted no-one would be sold without his consultation and go-ahead.
"I'm pretty confident about the January window. We don't need to sell," he said. "Everyone has their price and I think I will have a say in the decision if a huge bid comes in for any of the players. I don't want them to go. I want them to see this season out and make a real fist of the competitions. There are not many teams still going on four fronts – including the Champions League – with half the season gone.
When asked if he expected to have the final say in the event of a serious bid being received, Lennon said: "I'd like to think so, yeah. At the time when Aiden [McGeady] was going, I felt it was good business. It was a good offer and something where we could use the money on the team.
"We are now in a totally different scenario here. We are in a position where we don't need to sell although every player does have his price. It might depend on the club as well. It could be the case that I don't want to stand in the way of a player going to one of the bigger clubs, but I hope I don't have to face that scenario.
"If a bid comes in on the last day of the window, it's too late for us to accept it. I wouldn't have time [to replace him] and a club would have had all month to put a bid in. That sort of thing happens, but it won't happen here. Not to any of our major players, anyway."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article