NEIL Lennon last night revealed that Celtic are attempting to bring in experienced players during the January transfer window to bolster their attempt to win a record-equalling ninth consecutive Scottish title this season.
The Parkhead club are now just two points ahead of Rangers, who have a home game against St Johnstone in hand, in the Ladbrokes Premiership table after losing the last game before the winter shutdown last month.
Lennon has been linked with a raft of players in recent days – including Slovenian centre forward Andraz Sporar or Slovan Bratislava, Polish striker Patryk Klimala of Jagiellonia Białystok and Zimbabwean front man Tino Kadewere of Le Havre.
However, the Northern Irishman, speaking from the treble treble winners’ training camp in Dubai, feels it will be beneficial to bring in some older heads to complement the talented youngsters he has in his side.
“I think there is room for freshening things up and bringing in a little bit of quality and experience,” he said. “That is what we are endeavouring to do in the background. We have been linked with a few players, but there is nothing confirmed yet.
“Yes, just a bit of experience. Looking at the team, we have 19-year-olds, a couple of 20-year-olds, 21-year-olds. Allied to that, we have the (Scott) Brownys and (Callum) McGregors of this world. Going forward for the second half we would like a bit of experience in there to augment what we already have.
“That is what we are looking for, that is the objective. But if I can’t get what I want then we have got a good core of a squad. We will definitely bring in one or two players. If I can get our No.1 targets, great. If we can’t then we will just freshen things up.”
Lennon revealed that Celtic haven’t tabled a bid for any of their targets, but stressed he was optimistic of the Parkhead club bringing in new faces imminently.
“We’re just in talks,” he said. “It’s important we bring a couple in. I think we need a bit of strength in depth. Some experience wouldn’t go amiss as well and we want some quality to give the rest of the boys a lift.
“January is a hard month. You can go right up until January 31 sometimes. Right to the death and you can get good deals done, so we are very optimistic of having a good month.
“Nick (Celtic head of football operations Hammond) has been on the phone about four times this week on conference calls and he’s here, there and everywhere with players at the minute. We’re doing more analysis and, hopefully, we’ll have something by the end of the week.”
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