Celtic boss Neil Lennon has heaped praise on recruitment guru Nick Hammond and revealed he wants the director of football to STAY at Parkhead.

Hammond was hired by the Hoops to assist with bringing players to the club this summer.

Eleven new faces did walk through the gates and Hammond played a vital role in helping a number of those deals over the line.

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The likes of Christopher Jullien, Hatem Abd Elhamed and Greg Taylor all joined to help the first-team while younger players like Jonathan Afolabi and Lee O'Connor will be future stars at Celts.

Ex-goalkeeper Hammond was brought to the club back in June "initially across the summer period".

But Lennon - who worked closely with the former West Brom director of football - is hopeful the man with an eye for a player will stay beyond his current deal.

Asked how big a role Hammond played in Celtic's signing drive, Lennon replied: "Huge, absolutely huge.

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"Will he stay on? I hope so.

"He's worked tirelessly, been here there and everywhere around Europe meeting agents, club representatives, talking to people on the phone constantly.

"Talk about work ethic, Nick is so diligent in a lot of areas when it comes to recruitment side of things.

"I've enjoyed working with him over the last few weeks.

"We've had a good week.

"Everything starts to look even more promising and with the players we've brought in, a lot of it's down to his hard work as well."