Friday, March 29, 2024

Lennon determined to keep Hooper at Celtic

Celtic manager Neil Lennon insists he will not let his best players leave the club for less than they are worth.

The Scottish Premier League leaders have rejected two bids from Southampton for striker Gary Hooper, who proved his worth by scoring his 16th goal of the season as Celtic remained two points clear of Rangers with a 2-1 win against Dundee United.

Hooper played in the Championship for Scunthorpe United when Liverpool’s Andy Carroll was in the same division with Newcastle, outscoring the striker before moving to Celtic for around two million pounds in 2010.

When asked about Hooper’s value, Lennon joked ’35 million pounds’, equal to what Liverpool paid for the England forward.

“I don’t draw comparisons, they are two totally different types of players and the market at that time was different,” he said.

“Chelsea spent a lot of money on Torres and Liverpool had money to spend. I think Andy Carroll is a very good player. Whether people think the fee is justified (or not) it’s not the player’s fault.”

“But we look at that, we look at some of the other prices being bandied about.”

“When we have players like Ki Sung-yueng, Beram Kayal, Emilio Izaguirre, Hooper and James Forrest, they are not going to go cheap, that’s for sure. They will have to pay proper money.”

“I don’t need to speak to the board, they know my position. Everyone has their price. We are not a selling club but everyone has their price.”

“The problem is if we get a knockout price, will we have time to replace someone like Gary Hooper? Trust me, they are hard to find.”

“I have spoken to Gary, I am keeping him up to date. I think he is very happy here. I think Celtic and Gary suit each other, he is a Celtic type of player, strong, great finisher, great feet and his goal record speaks for itself.”

Some of the Parkhead crowd were relieved at the final whistle after what they believed to be a narrow win, but Lennon thought that his side were always in control.

“We dominated the first half and started the second half well,” he said.

“Dusan Pernis made a couple of very good saves to keep Dundee United in it and then they scored a wonder strike out of nothing and sometimes you have to hold your hand up and say ‘good goal’.”

“It was fraught for a while and Fraser Forster made a really good save from Jon Daly but Georgios Samaras missed two really good chances to kill the game off.”

“I am not going to be critical of the players because of the pitch, but overall I am really pleased.”

Dundee boss Peter Houston watched the game from the stands as he served the first of a two-game touchline ban for criticising officials in the recent defeat by Aberdeen.

He was disappointed by his side’s lack of crosses into the Celtic box during good spells after the break.

“I am really disappointed that we didn’t take something from the game,” he said.

“Celtic will say they were good goals but they were soft goals, especially the second one, we switched off at a corner and that was a letdown.”

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