NEIL LENNON has praised the work of Nicky Hammond after the transfer window closed on Monday evening. Hammond isn’t a conventional chief scout, the Englishman is head of football operations which means he oversees much more than recruitment.
Hammond appointed his own chief scout in Gary Penrice who has also been working tirelessly during this busy period.
The Celtic manager claims Nicky has overhauled the infrastructure at the club which was in disarray after Brendan Rodgers and Lee Congerton left the club. The scouting system under Rodgers was very poor, to say the least.
After the current window closed, it’s clear Celtic have made positive steps to rectify the situation.
“It’s been a brilliant window and Nick has done a great job. The recruitment team worked so hard over the lockdown period and summer,” Neil Lennon revealed to CelticTV.
“Nick has had to totally restructure that department and the amount of work that’s gone into it has been tremendous. He has kept his eye on a lot of deals and to get some of them done has been fantastic,”
“You look at guys we’ve signed like Shane Duffy, Laxalt, Vasilis Barkas, Albian Ajeti — plus David Turnbull is a great young talent.
“We have a good mix of experience and youth, and real quality. There is a bit of youthful exuberance in the squad. We identified the areas we wanted to strengthen and we did that. We have tidied up the squad too. Some have left and others have gone on loan to get games.
“We have brought in some real quality and allied to that, we have kept all our main assets.
“It’s really good business from our point of view, and it shows the intent the board have for this season and years to come.”
The transfer window has been well received widely by the Celtic support.
There are a lot of times when Celtic buy projects and bring them to the club with the hope they will develop over time. The need for first team stars ready to go this term was great and that’s exactly what we got. You could argue that David Turnbull is both for now and the future. In all, an impressive outing for Hammond and his new infrastructure.
