NEIL LENNON has told his wantaway Celtic stars that the club doesn’t have to sell them despite their exit from the Champions League, and he has called upon his whole squad to come together as they renew their focus on achieving 10 in-a-row.
The Celtic manager savaged some of his players after the disappointing defeat to Ferencvaros on Wednesday night, saying that if some of them wanted to leave the club, then they should.
He has ridden back on that statement somewhat though, saying that the distraction of interest from elsewhere had nothing to do with the result, and he has called for unity from his squad from here on in.
"This is too important a season to be selling players for top dollar,” Lennon said. “We want to keep our best players.
"Losing on Wednesday is damaging but it's not terminal by any stretch of the imagination.
"I don't get involved in any negotiations with agents or on the contract side of things.
"We make recommendations about players we want to keep and those who deserve new contracts.
“Sometimes you can get a little bit distracted and I need them with full focus now. We’ve had a disappointing end to a year’s work. You work all year to get into the Champions League and to go out so early is bitterly disappointing.
“We need to knuckle down now and make the most of what’s left of the European run. We are in the Europa League so we have to make the best of that and then defend all our trophies as vigorously and robustly as we can.
“We have to be tuned in. There is no disparity or people breaking away or anything like that. It’s just the message: we have to be bang on it now from here on in.
“I don’t think we budget for getting in the Champions League. If we get in it’s a big bonus for the club. We don’t need to sell any of our players, we don’t want to sell any of our players. If anything we want to tie them down on longer contracts. I think that is the forefront of what we want to do.”
As part of that strategy, Lennon has renewed his desire to tie down striker Odsonne Edouard on a long-term deal.
"We want to talk to Odsonne and his representatives,” he said.
"We want to keep him here for as long as we can and as long as he wants to be here."
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