Thank goodness the window has closed

03 February 2011 01:37
Signing new players is all well and good but Neil Lennon is happy to work with what he has. Manager Neil Lennon was disappointed that he could not make three signings on transfer deadline day. Last week Lennon agreed to sign Derby forward Kris Commons, who was out of contract in the summer. A similar deal failed to agreed for Nottingham Forest defender Kelvin Wilson on 31 January. Stoke also pulled the plug on a move for defender Abdoulaye Faye while an unnamed target was seconds away from signing. Lennon is happy that the pressure of getting signings arranged in the transfer window has passed till the summer.He said: "I have got to say it was a huge distraction on Monday because we worked very hard throughout the day and night to try to bring players in. We got knocked back by Forest on Kelvin Wilson and also Abdoulaye Faye because Stoke could not do a deal at the other end. Then there was another player late on Monday night who I would not want to name, to be fair to the lad involved. We were very, very close to doing that deal as well. I literally mean it was a minute to 11 that we got the forms through, but we got knocked back by the other team because they could not get the man they wanted, so we had to cancel the forms." Lennon was disappointed not to bolster his defence, with full-backs Mark Wilson and Charlie Mulgrew having to fill in at central defence during Tuesday night's 3-0 win at 10-man Aberdeen. The Celtic boss insists he and chief executive Peter Lawwell did all they could to get a new face in, but stressed his injury worries are set to subside. He said: "It wasn't down to the club. Peter and myself worked tirelessly to try to do something. We have a bit of cover coming back with Georgios Samaras training again, along with Daniel Majstorovic and Glenn Loovens," Lennon added. Ki Sung-Yueng and Cha Du-Ri are also back from the Asian Cup and in contention for Sunday's Scottish Cup game at Ibrox."

Source: FOOTYMAD