NEIL LENNON has brought the shutter down on any more sales in the transfer window after Kelvin Wilson followed Victor Wanyama and Gary Hooper in heading to England.
The central defender completed his return transfer to Nottingham Forest after two seasons in Scotland, with the Parkhead club receiving £2.5m, money Lennon would like to turn around as quickly as possible.
The Celtic manager will spend the weekend trying to finalise a deal to bring in at least one more player to augment his squad before Monday's registration cut-off date for eligibility to be included for the play-off round for the Champions League. Celtic have been drawn against the Kazakhstan champions, Shakhter Karagandy, with the first leg in the Kazakh capital, Astana, a week on Tuesday.
Lennon concedes that he faces a race against time not only to bring in players, but to find out about the side who had no European pedigree before they shocked BATE Borisov in the second qualifying round, winning 1-0 home and away against the Belarusain club who competed in the group stage of the Champions League last season.
Speaking the night before he selected what he admits will be a shadow team to face Liverpool in the Dublin Decider at the Aviva Stadium tonight, Lennon gave an optimistic update on the progress of the mission to add to the four signings already made in this transfer window.
He said: "I am not envisaging anyone else leaving, it is just a question of adding to the squad now. I think it's imperative we do. We are a little bit short in certain areas, and I think the fans would like to see the squad getting a bit of freshness in.
"We are doing all we can to add to the quality we already have. There are no new players coming in at the minute, but I am hoping something might develop over the weekend.
"Obviously, Kelvin's now gone to Forest. We're a bit bare on numbers, and we want to add to that in the next few days as the deadline is Monday."
Celtic have been heavily linked in Italy with the 21 year-old left-sided defender from Pescara, Marco Capuano, with reports that they are prepared to pay £2.8m for the under-21 internationalist. Lennon has previously indicated he would like to acquire cover for Emilio Izaguirre, but he refused to give any credence to the Capuano connection. "We have been linked with a lot of players, but I'm not here to speculate."
A similar response was given when Lennon was asked about the possibility of reviving their interest in the Wolves striker Kevin Doyle, a player he had attempted to sign on loan before the window closed in January.
The Molineux club are desperate to remove the Republic of Ireland internationalist from their pay role as they adjust to life in League 1. His £40,000-per-week wage, though, is too rich for Celtic, as is Wolves' asking price of £1.5m. Informed he had scored against Kazakhstan, Lennon smiled and agreed he would have to be recruited before the play-off games.
He turned serious again, saying: "We tried to get him in January, but that was then and this is now. He is contracted with Wolves, but he's a player we have expressed interest in."
Lennon also revealed that Charlie Mulgrew looks likely to miss Scotland's game against England on Wednesday after picking up a knee injury against Elfsborg in midweek.
James Forrest is also missing from tonight's squad but Lennon expects him to report for international duty along with Scott Brown.
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