Celtic manager Neil Lennon is planning to spend money in the January transfer window but refused to say if Huddersfield Town attacker James Vaughan is among his targets.
Huddersfield manager Mark Robins this week warned Lennon that Vaughan is not for sale after the Hoops manager watched Town play twice in four days.
But Lennon remained coy when asked about the 25-year-old former Everton and Norwich forward, who has scored 12 goals so far for the English Championship side this season.
“I’ve been watching a lot of players,” said Lennon, whose team faces Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership at Fir Park tonight.
“I’m not here to talk about one specific player. There were 22 players at Huddersfield-Burnley and 22 players at Bolton-Huddersfield. Maybe I wasn’t specifically looking at James Vaughan.
“I’ve been linked with him and that’s fine. People are putting two and two together.
“I have spoken to Mark Robins. I know Mark from my playing days. So it’s not just James Vaughan I’m looking at, but he is a player we think is a good player.”
Lennon endured a largely frustrating summer transfer window until a final flurry, when the likes of Teemu Pukki and Nir Biton joined his earlier signings.
But of all Lennon’s summer signings, only Virgil van Dijk established himself as a regular starter in time for Celtic’s Champions League campaign and Lennon wants to give players a better chance of settling in.
“The January window is more difficult as clubs don’t want to part with players,” he said.
“But we are looking to bring maybe one or two players in with the view of bedding them in between January and July for obviously, if we win the league, for the qualifiers in July and August just to bed them in to the way we play.
“The close season is so short and, with some of the players being away at the World Cup, it will be even shorter this year.”
Celtic and Motherwell go into tonight’s game in hugely contrasting moods with Lennon’s side having thrashed Hearts 7-0 in the Scottish Cup on Sunday – 24 hours after the Steelmen had been knocked out by Albion Rovers.
But Lennon is only looking ahead.
“It will give Motherwell an extra edge, they have got to restore some pride,” he said.
“It was a big surprise because they have been so consistent over the last couple of years.”