Lennon comment to Glasgow Paper

[Bradwell canary 109]

Does not seem too positive about keeping Hooper, stating every player has his price:

NEIL LENNON today told Gary Hooper he was going nowhere this month after the club rejected an offer from Norwich.

Lennon reluctantly confirmed the development after reports emerged in England of a £5million offer from the Barclays Premier League club.

Hooper has so far resisted persistent attempts by Celtic to extend his contract beyond the end of next season but the club are in no hurry to cash in on the prolific forward as they chase four trophies, including the Champions League.

Lennon had yet to talk directly to Hooper when he confirmed the bid had been rejected but made his position clear at the pre-match media conference ahead of tomorrow''s Clydesdale Bank Premier League visit of Hearts.

"Our case is simple - you are not going," Lennon said.

"You have got a year and a half on your contract so you''re a Celtic player."

Lennon, whose team face Juventus in the last 16 of the Champions League next month, added: "The bid has been rejected. We had discussions with his representatives this morning and we are waiting to hear back from them.

"We are in a good position. We don''t want to sell. We feel we have a lot to look forward to in the second half of the season.

"We don''t want any of our top players to go and Gary comes into that bracket."

Lennon added: "I''ve not spoken to him today because I was with his representatives most of the morning, so I''m sure they''ll have a discussion about what was said between ourselves later on. He is preparing to start tomorrow.

"The talks were positive and we made our position pretty clear. We left his representatives to it. They will go away and digest it and come back to us."

Essex-born Hooper has scored 68 goals in 114 games since joining Celtic in July 2010 and has been tipped for England honours after helping the club into the knockout stages of Europe''s elite competition with two well taken goals against Spartak Moscow.

And Lennon revealed Celtic were not minded to cash in on the 24-year-old, who they bought from Scunthorpe for £2million, despite their failure to tie him down for longer.

"I haven''t come to that point yet," he said. "(In the summer) he will only have a year left and he may want to run down his contract. I''ve not spoken to him about future scenarios.

"For the time being, we have rejected the deal, I''m annoyed it has come out publicly. I''m annoyed with people down the road letting it come out publicly.

"I can''t point any fingers but it has certainly not come out from this end."

Lennon added that he was "pretty confident" Hooper would be at the club when the transfer window shut.

"It''s like everyone else - they all have their price," Lennon added.

"But when a transfer comes in way under our valuation then the club is quite right to say no."

[York Canary 28]

Sounds quite adamant that he''s keeping him from reading that actually. He says every player has their price, but I''m not sure the price they''re setting for him is realistic if it''s the rumoured £7/8m. Maybe he''ll try shock tactics and hand in a transfer request (Hooper), but I don''t really know what''s going to happen. It''s interesting that he said the representatives will go away and come back to him..what for? If he''s their player and he''s going nowehere then there''s no reason to discuss anything further really. Hmm..this one will be a hard nut to crack I think

[Hog 0]

and is he blaming us for the transfer leak?

[York Canary 28]

Sounds like it Hog ''down the road'' and ''certainly not from our end''.

 

Nice of him to assume. He''s obviously worried if he wants it all kept quiet

[York Canary 28]

Also, we wouldn''t want to start a bidding war so why would we release the info unless we wanted to unsettle him? You''d assume we''d have already talked to him though and checked if he was interested in joining so that would be pointless

[S10 Canary 0]

Isn''t the language "For the time being we have rejected the deal" quite interesting. Almost as if a deal was getting towards being sewn up and the leak occurred.

[York Canary 28]

[quote user="Rotherham Canary"]Isn''t the language "For the time being we have rejected the deal" quite interesting. Almost as if a deal was getting towards being sewn up and the leak occurred.[/quote]

Completely missed that point! Can''t believe I did..verrrry interesting

[Branston Pickle 3,655]

I doubt he thinks it is us that broke the news, it is far more likely to be someone in Hooper''s ''advisory team'' - it could be in their interests to drum up interest in their ''client'' and it certainly isn''t in our''s.

[Yorkshire Canary 118]

£2m more would clinch the deal imo time to push the boat out get some real quality in and make sure we stay up, £2m would look cheap then

[S10 Canary 0]

I too think that another £2M would clinch it. I would imagine there''s a LOT of chatter been going on behind closed doors today.

[Syteanric 1]

how far is Liverpool from Glasgow?

watch the starting line up tomorrow perhaps?