Lennon: Ki sale ‘good business’

Neil Lennon has revealed money made from the sale of Ki Sung-yueng to Swansea will be used to pay off some of Celtic’s debt.

Swans chairman Huw Jenkins confirmed yesterday the Welsh club have agreed a fee, reportedly between £5million (€6.3m) and £6m (€7.6m) with Celtic for the 23-year-old South Korea midfielder and personal terms are now being discussed.

Speaking in Helsingborg before tonight’s first leg of their Champions League play-off clash with the Swedish champions (7.45pm), the Celtic boss spoke about the money the sale of Ki will generate, more in relation to the club’s debt, which stood at just over £7m in February, than reinvestment into his squad.

Lennon said: “It will help fund the debt, we have to get the debt down a little bit so that will help towards that.

“We will see where we go after these two games and see what money we have to spend, if (any) at all.

“I might not (get the Ki money) I might get some of it, I don’t know.

“We are in advanced discussions with a club at the minute and we are hoping that the deal will go through. I am not at liberty to say (if its Swansea) but there may be interest from other clubs as well. He is not here, we have given him a bit of extra time because he has a lot to think about.”

The Irishman believes the sale of Ki represents “good business” for a player who cost Celtic £2m when he joined the club from FC Seoul three years ago: “He has only 15 months left in his contract and we feel it is a good offer and good business on our side.

“It is unfortunate to lose a quality player but that has been our strategy at the club for the last two or three years, cultivate these players and eventually move them on if they want to go.

“We haven’t got a set fee for any players but we feel the offer is one that is good for us.”

After beating HJK Helsinki home and away in the third qualifier, Lennon is confident that his players are ready to break through the glass ceiling to reach the Champions League group stages.

The former Hoops skipper said: “We have been together two years and a lot of players know we haven’t done as well as we maybe should have.

“We got through a tough tie in Helsinki and that will give the players a lot of confidence.

“They all want to play Champions League football but we have two difficult games to overcome before we can start talking about that.”

Lennon is delighted that Helsingborg’s top scorer, Alfred Finnbogason, has left the club but admits he knows little of Nikola Djurdjic, the replacement striker who signed for Age Hareide’s side from Haugesund only yesterday and who is available to play tonight.

Lennon is more familiar with Alejandro Bedoya, the Rangers flop who recently moved to Helsingborg and who scored a spectacular goal in their 2-1 defeat by Elfsborg at the weekend. The Parkhead manager said: “No doubt he will be a threat and I think he will be motivated to play us.”