Ivan Toney’s Lennoxtown Trip

Lennon was busy spilling the gossip on this morning’s EURO Breakfast Show which was broadcasted on BBC Radio Scotland at 7.30am.

Lennon discussed many things, including last summer’s transfer window where Celtic missed out on top target Fraser Forster and English League 1 top goalscorer Ivan Toney.

Instead, Celtic signed Greek international Vasilis Barkas and Albian Ajeti, both players are considered flops. These were not the only players not to maximise their Celtic careers with the loan signings of Laxalt and Duffy not going to plan. Nick Hammond, who was head of recruitment at the time of signing these players, left late into the season.

Speaking this morning, Neil Lennon confirmed Ivan Toney was in Celtic’s training ground. As quoted by SunSport the former manager said;

“We had Toney in the building at Lennoxtown when we were in France [for pre-season], so we were well down the line with that one.

“Why didn’t the deal go through? Just finances, I assume.”

In the summer, the initial lockdown was being eased cautiously by the Scottish Government, however, the pandemic was still prevalent in the country albeit the statistics were low.

The financial impacts were not yet known, even now the full extent of the financial impacts are not yet known. Celtic went through some of the 2019/20 season with no ticket money, as well as all of last season.

The club did however decide to charge full price for season tickets, and then freeze prices for this upcoming season. There is no guarantee that Celtic Park will be able to facilitate 60,000 fans depending on restrictions set out by the First Minister.

Finances will tight this summer, with the club relying on sales of stars to create transfer funds. Could this force the club to stand by Ajeti and Barkas who could prove us all wrong?