NEIL LENNON last night slapped a £35million price tag on Gary Hooper’s head after the striker notched his 16th goal of the season in the 2-1 win over Dundee United. As MailSport revealed last week, Southampton are keen to snap up Hooper and the Championship club had a £4m bid rejected 48 hours ago. Saints believe a £6m offer will land the Hoops star but Lennon insists it would take Andy Carroll money to tempt him into a sale. Hooper out-scored Carroll in the Championship two years ago when he was plying his trade for Scunthorpe. But the Newcastle star then went on to earn a £35m move to Liverpool last year. The Celtic boss said: “Gary is happy here. He has good feet and is a good finisher. I’m delighted he got his goal today. “Southampton have been in for him but I don’t want to sell any of my top players. It would have to be top dollar for guys such as Gary, Ki Sung-Yeung, Beram Kayal, Emilio Izaguirre and James Forrest. “But if I had to put a price on Gary’s head then it would be £35million. Even if we did receive a knock-out price for Gary, would we be able to replace him? Trust me, goalscorers of his calibre are not easy to find.” Lennon is in the market for an experienced striker and insists Celtic’s title chances will be jeopardised if he doesn’t get one in this month’s window. The Parkhead boss feels his squad lacks some older heads and said: “Last year I was trying to get Jimmy Bullard, Sol Campbell and David James just to give us that bit of experience. But they were looking for too much money. “So we decided to rethink and brought in younger players. “But you can’t keep buying young players. Eventually you have to sprinkle it with a few older heads to keep the balance of the squad right. “The young players are talented but you need to match that with mentality. Whether or not that comes to bite us later on in the season I don’t know. “A wealth of experience would help but January is a difficult time to do any business. If we are going to bring in anyone it will be a centre forward.” Celtic were two up at half-time yesterday before John Rankin’s second-half screamer made it a nervy ending. But they held on for an 11th successive SPL win to stay two points clear at the top. And the Hoops gaffer said: “I wasn’t happy with some aspects but we won again and have been consistent and resilient during this run. Long may it continue. “We also missed James Forrest today. He had the flu and we decided to leave him out.” Parkhead skipper Scott Brown is also desperate to hold on to stars like Hooper for the title push. He said: “We’re top of the league and that brings its own pressure. But I hope we can keep all our good players. “I don’t want to see Gary, Kris Commons or Joe Ledley leave the club.” http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/footba...ice-tag-on-gary-hooper-s-head-86908-23699741/ A long overduie statement of intent from Celtic in my opinion. If clubs down south want to try and get our players let them cough up stupid money same as they do in the EPL. I've no doubt if an offercame in for £12m (maybe a bit less) then maybe Celtic would sell, until then why should we just bend over and part our metaphorical cheeks at other clubs? If Andy Carrolis worth £35m Hooper is worth at least £20m but in the elitist insular wee world of the EPL, players values are vastly inflated,transfer fees between clubs for players in the EPL outlandish and extreme, just because they have the players have supposedly "Proved" themselves in England's top flight. Lot of codswallop, Christophe Berra is an averge player, he was thus at Hearts and remains so at Wolves who paid £2.5mforhim, yet his value is probably somewhere in the £6-7M mark simply because he now plays in England.
Dev I think Neil Lennon has been quite specific for the whole transfer window that he doesn't want to sell any of his top players in January. Didn't Peter Lawell say he turned down £29m for Gary in the summer. Seriously no one that matters will contemplate selling a player like Gary before this SPL season is over. Everyone knows that they don't want to carry the can, or be seen to carry the can, for Celtic losing 4 in a row. It is idle chat to say that £6m or £8 m will leave Celtic in a position to buy other targets such as Rhodes or that other one Neil was watching at the close of the summer transfer market. We cannot trade an established Celtic goal scorer for someone, who may or may not score in the SPL. To be honest you cannot be sure until you have them playing. Some score immediately but usually it takes some time. Torres and Carroll scored reasonably regular before their big transfer moves, and this was in the same league, they cannot buy a goal. Nobody out, someone in!!
We could start a fight on fatty's board: http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/116487-Hooper-35m-WTF?p=2076652#post2076652
I agree with super hooper, why sell now unless some ridiculous bid comes in? At the end of the day, Hooper's value will only only go up if Celtic win the league as expected. Also, more clubs will be prepared to bid for him in the summer than now. It would be madness selling him now.
Southampton are doing a bit of a Rangers with the bidding too - keep offering **** fees trying to unsettle the player and force it through from the players end. No way were they ever going to get him for £4m.
