Neil Lennon has revealed he wants Nir Bitton tied down on a new deal before the January transfer window opens.
The Israeli’s contract runs out in the summer and the 28-year-old has already been linked with a £1m move to Burnley at the end of the month.
However the manager has reiterated his desire to keep the versatile midfielder, who can also play centre-half.
Bitton has just past 200 appearances for Celtic since signing in 2013 and has won 13 trophies in his time there, but has only started 10 games out of 29 this season.
Lennon said: “We don’t want him to go, we want him to stay. So, talks are on-going.
“Do we want it sorted before January? Yeah. We don’t want him to run down his contract, for sure.
“He’s made indications he would like to stay and that’s what we want too, so we’ll see how that pans out.
“Nir’s happy here and we’re hoping we’ll get a positive resolution to that as we go along.”
