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{ CELTIC midfielder Beram Kayal believes his club are poised for a lengthy spell of domestic dominance if Neil Lennon's longer term future as manager is secured.Lennon is out of contract this summer with the offer of a new deal understood to be dependent on Celtic winning the Scottish Premier League title this season.

Sunday's 3-0 defeat of Rangers at Celtic Park left Lennon's team eight points clear of the defending champions, who have two games in hand, and has seen their odds on lifting the trophy shorten to as little as 1-3 with some bookmakers.

Kayal, one of a raft of new signings Lennon has gradually moulded into an effective unit over the course of the campaign, has no doubt the manager has already proved himself worthy of an extended tenure.

The 22-year-old Israeli international has emerged as a key performer in a squad he says are committed to bringing sustained success to Celtic over the next few seasons.

"The manager has made this team and it's fantastic," said Kayal.

"Sometimes people forget this is a new team, we have brought in 13 or 14 new players this season. But the team has gelled together very quickly and I think it is because of the manager.

"We are a very young team and if you look at us, then we could be playing together at Celtic for the next three or four years. The manager has built it, so hopefully it's the same for him.

"We have good young players and a good manager. He makes us all feel special, and we all try 100 per cent for him. Together we could have good success. I am learning from him every day in training and all the players feel the same. We have a lot of talent but the manager pushes us
every day and that's why we are a strong team."

Celtic stretched their current unbeaten run to 17 matches on Sunday, 12 of them victories, and remain in pursuit of all three domestic trophies.

They face Rangers in the Scottish Cup fifth-round replay at Celtic Park next Wednesday and will take on their great rivals again in the Co-operative Insurance Cup final at Hamdpen on 20 March.

The form of several of Lennon's recruits during the undefeated sequence, including Kayal, Honduran left-back Emilio Izaguirre and striker Gary Hooper, has attracted growing attention from English Premier League clubs. Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish, who attended Sunday's Old Firm game, is the latest to be credited with an interest in Izaguirre. Kayal, however, believes there is a collective desire among the Celtic squad to remain part of a potentially exciting era for the club.

"I am here and happy at Celtic," added Kayal. "I have a long contract and I want to stay here. Really, I feel at home.

"I feel I could play here for the next five or six years with the manager and these players. Great credit must go to the manager for putting us all together and making us feel we have been playing together for years.

"Every day, every game, everyone here wants to play better and we try every game to continue our good form. I think I will learn more here than anywhere else.

"I am learning English and football, so it's fantastic for me to stay here.

"This club has so many talented players. But, not only that, every player really believes we are going to win every game. It is too early to say whether we can win every game until the end of the season, but we will try to do that.

"Rangers are a good team as well, but our manager has given us confidence.

"We are together and push each other to win.

"I don't think we are favourites to win the league yet.

" I was very happy we beat Rangers on Sunday, but we have to give respect to the other teams as well and make sure we focus just as much on every game we play."

Kayal limped out of the Old Firm showdown after 61 minutes with a hamstring strain but is confident it will not force him to miss any matches.

He is suspended for Celtic's next SPL fixture, against Motherwell at Fir Park on Sunday, in any case.

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Labels: Beram, Celtic, future, happy, Kayal, Lennon, Scotsman

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Chris Ashton wants England to move on from their demolition of Italy and work hard to secure Six Nations glory this season.

The 23-year-old was the star of an excellent England display at Twickenham on Saturday as his four tries helped Martin Johnson's men record a 59-13 victory over the Azzurri.
The Northampton flyer scored twice in each half, while Mark Cueto, Mike Tindall, Danny Care and James Haskell also touched down as England cemented their place at the top of the table.
Ashton has now bagged six tries in the first two matches of the tournament after scoring a brace as the English opened their account with a 26-19 victory over Wales at the Millennium Stadium last weekend.
Many pundits believe that England have their best chance of winning the Six Nations since they last lifted the trophy in 2003 with the way that the fixture list has been kind to them, as they play France and Scotland at home over the next few weeks.
But Ashton refuses to look too far ahead and feels that hard work and not personal accolades is the way to achieve success.
"It (breaking records) wasn't something I tried to do," he said. "I'm just glad to be in the team and I hope we carry on winning in the Six Nations. I'm glad Mark Cueto got his try as well.
"We know that (talk about winning the Grand Slam will increase) but we've just got to keep on practising as hard as we can and keep on doing our best."

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Rumours were rife in Edinburgh that Riordan and manager Colin Calderwood did not see eye to eye and that the player would seek to leave when his current agreement expires in the summer. He was at pains to point out that the opposite is the case.

“I’m happy at Hibs, I enjoy it, I’m from Edinburgh and I support Hibs so it’s good for me,” he said.

“Hopefully, I can stay on beyond the end of the season, I want to stay at Hibs throughout my career but that will need to happen at the end of the season.

“I have had wee talks with the manager - I think everybody has - but they said they would decide later on. I’m happy playing football.”

Riordan also publicly backed Calderwood, who had left him out of the starting line-up for the three previous games, and insisted there is no bad blood between them.

“I’m glad for the gaffer, obviously,” he said. “He has been through a tough time since he has come in.

“But he’s got the players in he wants now, and we have got that first win so it has obviously worked.

“You want to do well for him because he is such a brilliant guy, one of the nicest managers I’ve had.

“Everyone gets on really well with him, he is a really nice guy and you don’t want to see bad results go against him.

“I was really happy for him after this win: it means he can have a good weekend and we can all look forward to next week.”

Riordan looked drained after claiming his first win bonus in 13 matches, and he conceded that joy was not the prominent emotion when the final whistle blew.

“It was a sense of relief, to be honest,” he said. “It was a good feeling at the end of the match.

“We knew this was a big game for us at the bottom of the table and it has pushed us up the league a bit.

“I think we had gone something like eleven hours without scoring a goal so now we have got those goals I’m hoping more will come along.

“It’s important we build on this now. We want to stay in the SPL: that’s our aim.

“Given the run we have been on and the fact we are down there people were saying we were relegation candidates.

“We’ve got to get points on the board now. We have won an important game and we need to carry that on.”

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