Neil Lennon drops hint about Celtic transfer frustrations

Celtic were not very active in the January transfer window when it comes to signing players, although they did let a number of key members of the squad leave. And it should not come as a surprise if Neil Lennon had wanted to sign replacements for players who were leaving.

Just a glance at their transfer business in the previous month shows you that the club did not fill the voids that were left behind by the departures.

Both Jeremie Frimpong and Hatem Abd Elhamed left permanently but only Jonjoe Kenny was brought in, that too on a loan till the end of the season. Olivier Ntcham also departed on a loan to Marseille, with an option to buy at the end of the campaign. Nobody was brought in to replace him.

It is also notable that Lennon had suggested that the club would be looking to sign a centre-back after Christopher Jullien got injured in December, as reported by The Scottish Sun. That did not happen and instead he lost another player capable of playing there, in the form of Elhamed.

Celtic’s lack of signings in January

When asked if the financial situation had affected him, Lennon suggested that it had not because the club did not spend any money in January in the first place. Speaking to the media, he said on the club’s official YouTube channel:

"“Well it hasn’t really, we’ve not really spent any money in the January window. I brought Jonjoe (Kenny) in and obviously we’ve sold Elhamed and Frimpong. Two players who made it clear that they wanted to go, Ntcham, he wanted to go as well.“So in terms of finances that’s not been dictated to me, it’s more or less a question of  players weren’t happy and they’d made that clear for a while and we thought it best from a footballing point of view that we move the players on.”"

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You would think that if the club were fighting for the title, then they would go out and spend in order to make sure that the voids were properly filled. But now that the Hoops are sitting 18 points behind the Rangers in the league table, it looks something of a lost cause.

And in this situation, it is hard to blame the board. It is clear that the season is as good as over and second is the best that they can hope for going forward. As a result, they cannot be expected to go and sign players for a manager, who is likely to be shown the exit door come the end of the campaign.

Let’s just hope that when or if a new manager is brought in, the club can sign proper and hopefully better replacements for those who have left, and will leave over the coming months.