Celtic in talks with Alessandro Del Piero after taking care of Helsingborgs

Chief football writer

Thursday 30 August 2012

CELTIC secured a minimum £16m Champions League windfall last night, hours after entering discussions to sign the Italian legend Alessandro Del Piero.

Celtic have opened talks with Alessandro Del Piero's representatives

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Michael Grant

The 37-year-old World Cup, Champions League and multi Serie A winner is a free agent after leaving Juventus and Celtic have joined FC Sion and Sydney FC in holding talks with his representatives.

Declaring an interest in Del Piero was a remarkable development after an intoxicating night for the club at Parkhead, in which they defeated Helsingborgs 2-0 – and 4-0 on aggregate – to secure a place in this afternoon's Champions League group draw.

Neil Lennon, the manager, would not disclose any possible signing target, let alone Del Piero, who seems likely to end up with Sion, but he did reveal that deals were close with one or two players. "We have a couple of players lined up already, if we can get the medicals done. I also want to speak to Peter [Lawwell, the club's chief executive] about rewarding some of the players we have with new contracts."Last night's other play-off results confirmed that Celtic will be in Pot Four when the draw is held in Monaco at 5pm today. From Pot One they will draw one of Barcelona, Chelsea, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Porto or AC Milan.From Pot Two they will draw either: Valencia, Benfica, Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit St Petersburg, Manchester City, Schalke, Sporting Braga or Dynamo Kiev. From Pot Three the opposition will be Ajax, Juventus, Olympiakos, Lille, Anderlecht, Spartak Moscow, Paris-St Germain or Galatasaray. The "hardest" group would be Real Madrid, Manchester City and PSG. The draw offering the most hope would be with Porto, Braga and Lille."It really doesn't matter who we get," said Lennon after securing Celtic's return to the groups for the first time since 2008. "I have no idea how we will do but it's great just for the players to be in the Champions League. We have the infrastructure to be a Champions League club and now the players have done their talking on the pitch. It will be exciting tomorrow. The fans can get their passports out. Obviously drawing an English team would get the juices going, with the battle of Britain stuff. If we can avoid Barcelona and Real Madrid we might have half a chance." Qualifying was the best feeling he'd known as Celtic manager, he said. "I've been to hell and back over the last six or seven weeks, just trying to get things right. It's a great night for me and for the fans. It's a minor miracle, qualifying when the squad is so thin, but we knew we had a core of good players. It's a brilliant night for the players and I am very, very proud. It's not often I pat myself on the back but I am going to tonight."He admitted he had been irritated by the comments of Age Hareide, the Helsingborgs coach, over the two legs, claiming the Norwegian had not shown Celtic enough respect. After last night's game, Hareide said: "The best teams in Europe are better than Celtic but I think Celtic will get better and better. They have some players who can be matchwinners. With this fantastic crowd behind them, they can pick up points, absolutely."

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Celtic in talks with Alessandro Del Piero after taking care of Helsingborgs

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