N'Guemo warns Celtic board not to sell key men

Published on Thursday 20 August 2009 22:42

LANDRY N'Guemo believes Celtic will seriously diminish their prospects of regaining the SPL title this season if they sell any of their first-team players over the next 11 days.

With the closure of the transfer window on 31 August approaching, speculation has intensified over the future of several key members of Celtic manager Tony Mowbray's squad.

The attendance of Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp at Celtic's match with Arsenal has reinforced his long-standing interest in Scotland midfielder Scott Brown and Republic of Ireland winger Aiden McGeady.

German international right-back Andreas Hinkel, meanwhile, is understood to be wanted by Hull City as well as several clubs in his homeland.

But N'Guemo, who joined Celtic this summer on a season-long loan from Nancy, has expressed his concern at the possible departure of any of his team-mates. "We really want to win the championship this season," said the Cameroon midfielder. "To do that, we have to keep our best players. The players being talked about for moves are all good players for our team and it is important to keep them."

Celtic are facing likely elimination from the Champions League as they take a 2-0 deficit into the second leg of their play-off round tie against Arsenal in London next Wednesday.

If they miss out on the group stage of the competition for the first time in four seasons, it will constitute a shortfall of around 10 million in income.

Participation in the group phase of the revamped Europa League would deliver some compensation, but Mowbray admitted earlier this week that failure to qualify for the elite tournament would make it more difficult for the club to resist bids for their players this month.