Celtic will spend on new faces in the summer, says new boss Neil Lennon

Neil Lennon at his unveiling as permanent Celtic boss

Celtic will spend in the summer to give their exhausted stars some much-needed support, Neil Lennon has pledged.

Over the course of achieving their unprecedented treble Treble, the Hoops have played an incredible 183 games.

That, argues the new manager, is a worrying workload for the side’s key players, and one that he feels he must address ahead of the start of the 2019-20 campaign.

“It is a concern, of course it is,” he said. “The number of matches we have played is incredible.

“And can we keep it going? You hope so, but it needs freshness, it needs strengthening.

“That is natural. Nothing to do with being critical of players or anything.

“If it was me as a player, I’d think, ‘Phew, not again! I need a rest’.

“Because they’re not getting it. The Scottish lads will be away with the national team now, and then we are back in on June 17. I am going to have to stagger that for them as well.

“We need to give those players who have been at it for three seasons now that jag of quality in there that they need.

“Through doing that, we will give the squad the lift it needs.

“So we will try to recruit the best players we can get for the best positions, and improve as we go along.

“I can’t comment on what Rangers are going to do, or who they are going to try to recruit, other than to say it is their job to try and stop us doing nine in a row.

“But that is our intention.”

Lennon, meanwhile, has reiterated his faith in his assistants.

“I may bring in one more face, but we are not looking into that too much because the coaching staff were great to work with,” he said.

“John Kennedy was a very good buffer for me, and Damien Duff to a certain extent too, which allowed us to break things in gently.

“It would have been so stupid for me to come in and say: ‘You know what, lads. I don’t like that, this isn’t working, we’re going to do it my way.’”