Source: Team_Talk
McGeady could be tied up by Lennon
eil Lennon says he could not care less if he cup-ties Aiden McGeady by playing the winger in Wednesday night's Champions League tie.[LNB] McGeady is the subject of feverish transfer speculation, with Spartak Moscow having made a bid - reportedly £9.5million - for the Republic of Ireland international and Aston Villa and Tottenham also rumoured to be interested.[LNB]The 24-year-old made his first appearance since May on Saturday afternoon as Celtic scored twice in the final eight minutes to snatch a 2-2 draw in their Emirates Cup opener against Lyon.[LNB]Lennon had insisted he would field McGeady in the first leg of the Hoops' Champions League third qualifying round tie in Braga three days ago.[LNB]The midfielder's omission sparked rumours Celtic were trying to preserve his market value by ensuring he would not be cup-tied for the competition.[LNB]But Lennon insisted afterwards McGeady had been injured and on Saturday, he claimed cup-tying the player was the last thing on his mind as he seeks to overturn a 3-0 first-leg deficit.[LNB]"That's not my problem," he said. "I'm not even thinking about that."[LNB]Injury prevented McGeady playing any part in Celtic's pre-season until Saturday and he lasted just under an hour at Emirates Stadium.[LNB]"He looked a wee bit flat but that's understandable," said Lennon, whose side play hosts Arsenal in their final Emirates Cup match on Sunday.[LNB]"He's not had any football and we'll give him a run-out again tomorrow."[LNB]Lennon also played down an injury to captain Scott Brown, which saw the Scotland midfielder substituted.[LNB]He said: "I think he just got a bang on the foot and obviously I took him off just to be on the safe side.[LNB]"We'll see how he is tomorrow but he should be okay."[LNB]Celtic have been linked with a move for St Etienne defender Yohan Benalouane, who is also reportedly on the radar of arch-rivals Rangers.[LNB]"I can't give you anything on that," said Lennon, who did all but confirm that his centre-back partnership for Wednesday's Braga game would be Glenn Loovens and Jos Hooiveld.[LNB]"I'll probably go for the two experienced ones more than anything else."[LNB]Lennon fielded a new-look defence on Saturday, which included a debut for 17-year-old Filip Twardzik, who was not part of the 22-man party which Celtic brought from Glasgow.[LNB]The youngster from the Czech Republic had been with the club's under-19 squad in Belgium but was drafted in to play against Lyon.[LNB]Lennon said: "He was fantastic. He just tired a wee bit towards the latter stages of the game but I was thrilled with him."[LNB]As in Braga on Wednesday night, Celtic defended poorly on Saturday, falling 2-0 down to preventable goals from Michel Bastos and Harry Novillo.[LNB]But they created plenty of chances themselves and finally broke through late on before levelling at the death.[LNB]Lennon hopes Saturday afternoon's display proves to his players that they can compete at Champions League level, having held last season's semi-finalists.[LNB]He said: "We've got to take a lot of positives from today's performance, the chances we created, the way we pressed at times. The commitment was good.[LNB]"Obviously, the downside of that is we conceded two poor goals again from our point of view but you can't have everything.[LNB]"They know now they can play against top players and compete - and compete well."[LNB]Celtic's goals came from debutant Gary Hooper and substitute Georgios Samaras.[LNB]Lennon said of the new man: "His movement's very, very good. Even first half, some of the runs he was making, when the ball was in wide areas.[LNB]"We just need him to do it on a consistent basis and I think he'll score a lot of goals for us."
