O'Neill looks to secure big players

Celtic manager Martin O‘Neill believes tying up his current stars to deals is more important than signing new players.

The Hoops boss has so far not taken advantage of the transfer window to add any new faces to his squad.

But the Parkhead faithful were thrilled last week when John Hartson put pen to paper on a new deal which keeps him at the club until May 2007 and ends the speculation over his future.

O‘Neill has also offered a new deals to Neil Lennon and Bobo Balde while talks have taken place with Jackie McNamara.

The trio are among several players whose contracts expire in the summer and O‘Neill insists thrashing out new deals is just as important as snapping up fresh players.

He said: “I think that getting sensible and decent offers to your big players at the football club is probably even more important than getting acquisitions in.

“Replacing some of these lads who are out of contract would be extremely difficult and I‘m sure that the club is going to do everything it possible can to make very fair offers to them during the course of this month.

“This will be done bearing in mind what they‘ve done for us and what they‘ll be able to contribute in the future and, if the players themselves feel that they want to keep their options open, I don‘t think we can argue with that.

“But we shall certainly be doing everything we possibly can.”

Hartson grabbed the winner against Rangers in Sunday‘s Tennent‘s Scottish Cup tie and O‘Neill believes that goal only underlines just how important the Wales international is to Celtic.

He told the Celtic View: “I think that John would have been very difficult to replace.

“We‘ve already lost Henrik [Larsson], who was a big, big goalscorer here and an iconic figure, and to then lose Hartson – whose goal ratio is absolutely phenomenal – would have been a massive blow.

“But thankfully we‘ve got the deal sorted out and there‘s no doubt that everyone saw on Sunday why we‘re so delighted that he‘s staying here for a while longer.

“His goalscoring record against Rangers is something I know he‘s very proud of and justifiably so.”

Hartson admits he was relieved the protracted talks over his future resulted in him staying at Celtic but he claims money was never his motivation.

He said: “It was never about the money. I wanted the two-and-a-half years more than anything else.

“With my injury problems the club were a little bit reluctant early on in the talks to give me that length but once the final details and terms were agreed it was just a matter of us getting round the table and signing.

“I‘ve got to say that money has never really been my objective.”