Georgios Samaras: Neil Lennon not giving up on Celtic striker

Neil Lennon admits Celtic will be "vulnerable" to bids for Georgios Samaras but insists the club have not given up on retaining the striker.

The Greece international, 28, is out of contract in the summer and has been linked with a move to Hull City.

"There's been no conversation between us and Hull at the minute," the Celtic manager told BBC Scotland.

Meanwhile, Lennon says Wales midfielder Joe Ledley has "intimating that he wants to stay" at the club.

The 26-year-old is also in the final six months of his deal and free to speak to other clubs who might wish to sign him in the summer.

"Hopefully, negotiations will start up again and we'll get that over the line this month," Lennon said.

"He's playing very well and he's been a big player here for a while."

On Samaras, Lennon added: "The situation is he's going to be vulnerable and there is going to be a lot of interest in him because he's a quality player.

"But we're not finished on our side of it with Sami."

The Celtic manager is keen to add to his squad but brushed off links with Wolves and Scotland striker Leigh Griffiths and Dundee United's group of talented youngsters as "speculation".

"There's nothing in that," he said. "It's always going to be this way in January.

"We're going to get linked with a lot of players coming in and a lot of players going out."

Former Dundee United manager Peter Houston was recently appointed a Celtic scout.

"We've got our own set of targets that we'd like to get over the line with," said Lennon. "I'm going to meet Peter on Friday and try and get to work on that.

"There's money available. It just depends on getting the right price and the right player."

Joe Ledley scored the only goal of the game as Celtic got 2014 off to a winning start, with victory at home to Partick.

Lennon was happy with the result but less than enamoured with his side's display.

"We were flat today and it's been coming for a couple of games," he said. "They've started to look a little bit heavy legged and we'll have to assess them between now and the St Mirren game at the weekend.

"We need to find a spark before the break. There's a flatness about us and we played everything in front of Partick and there was no imagination or energy or urgency about us. I know the fans were disappointed with the performance but we will get better.

"I want to improve the squad as it's thin; I want a fresh injection to make us better."