Celtic transfers: Neil Lennon admits defence needs strengthened - but he might not be able to do it

Neil Lennon has admitted there are no guarantees Celtic will reinvest some proceeds from the £11.5million sale of Jeremie Frimpong to Bayer Leverkusen across the final days of the window.

Celtic manager Neil Lennon celebrates his side going ahead in the 2-0 win over Accies. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

Speaking after watching his side deliver “effervescence” as they returned to winning ways with a 2-0 victory over Hamilton, the Celtic manager would not be drawn on the possibility of a reported £2.5m move for Preston centre-back Ben Davies even as he acknowledged the need for reinforcements at the back.

“We need strength and depth in the defensive area and we are working away to bring one or two in. We may look at the right-back and defensive positions,” he said. “I will speak to Peter [Lawwell, Celtic chief executive] . Will we spend? We’ll see. We haven’t been immune to this pandemic. There might be options in the next couple of days that we don’t expect. But Christopher Jullien is out long term and Jeremie has gone, so we are looking at those areas.”

Lennon was spared questions over his future by his team producing a first win in five with goals from Leigh Griffiths and Odsonne Edouard. Lamenting that the pair haven’t played together more often, their goals topped off a performance that did not betray recent troubles.

“It was a good performance. I liked the way we played and the energy and style of play. I was disappointed we didn’t win by more, but it’s just a very small disappointment. The attitude and enthusiasm of the players was excellent. We are always going to demand of the players. I don’t want them to be wasteful in front of goal, especially having such good build up. A lot of unselfish running off the ball and good play. That’s far more the level of performance we are looking for.

“I was pleased with them all and the subs who came on as well. It’s been a difficult few weeks for whatever reason, but I thought the performance at Livi in real difficult conditions on a real difficult pitch was good. Is it a catalyst? We’ve been saying that for a while. We’ll see. We’ve a tough game at the weekend. St Mirren had a good win and we’ll take it as it comes and look forward to it.”

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