Celtic boss makes surprising Diego Laxalt admission

Neil Lennon has made a surprising admission about Celtic’s move for Diego Laxalt after it had looked like the deal had come out of nowhere.

You’d expect him to be excited when he has just seen a deal finalised to see a Uruguayan international join his squad from AC Milan. It looks a great deal. Lennon was speaking to the media and quoted on the club site about the player.

It was all very positive and encouraging. A left sided quality player who will be available for selection after the upcoming international break and, importantly, be able to play against AC Milan in the Europa League ties. Lennon clearly likes the player and is impressed by the level he has played at:

"“I admire him very much.“I watched him in the World Cup and thought he had an outstanding competition. He was playing in a very good Uruguayan team with some outstanding players and he looked very comfortable in that company.”"

The move is clearly not a last minute panic buy and has been in the plans for quite some time. Lennon went on to admit that the club had been trying to get Laxalt in last year. That didn’t work out at the time for Celtic but he has got his man now. Maybe if he had arrived instead of Boli Bolingoli we might be in a very different position:

"“We’ve been tracking him for a very long time – we tried to get him in this time last year, but we couldn’t do it. To get that deal over the line is fantastic business from the board and the club. The player looks really happy to be here, having spoken to him last night. He’ll bring a lot of quality and inspiration to the team.“As far as I’m aware, he’ll be available in the Europa League group stages and he’ll be available for the Rangers game as well. He’s been training, he’s not played much with Milan so far, but he’s fit and he’s available for the next games.”"

Lennon went on to talk about Laxalt as a player, he does sound just what’s needed. There is a possible touch of reality when we think back to everyone enthusing over Bolingoli, but this seems quite different. Let’s hope that continues to be the case:

"“He’s a great defender. He’s got great quality on the ball, he’s very tenacious, very fit, and again, he’s got a great desire to make things happen. I like his tenacity more than anything else, he refuses to get beaten or give the ball away, and I just think he’s a quality player who’s playing at a high level.“It’s a huge season, if you look at the games we’ve got coming up after the international break, they’re absolutely mouth-watering.”"

It’ll be very interesting to see how quickly Lennon gets Laxalt playing. Will he start, come on as a sub and who against? We have at times seen players get a slow start. Introduced gradually while building match fitness. This may be a bit more of a baptism of fire.

The next few weeks have some huge games, but that’s normal for Celtic. And it’s what the Hoops get players like this in for.