Neil Lennon has told his players that there is no disgrace in exiting the Champions League at this stage.

The Celtic manager was pragmatic as he pointed out the disparity in revenue between Celtic and their Group H rivals, and has insisted that even if he still had the likes of Gary Hooper, Victor Wanyama and Kelvin Wilson that Celtic could still have struggled this season.

He is well aware that the club will always look to maintain their financial position rather than splash massive amounts of money on individual players.

"I didn't know this, but seemingly Milan have the fourth-biggest wage bill in world football," he said. "And Barcelona are the third. That's the reality of it.

"You can spin it any way you like, but quality counts at the end of the day.

"Milan have some very good players in their team who are starting to look the real deal again.

"Unless you go out and spend big you can't have it every year. And even if I had Hooper, Wanyama and Wilson there is still no guarantee we would have got through.

"We would certainly have been better for having them. But there is no guarantee, even if we had spent £20million, that we would have gone through from a group like that.

"We have to be careful during times of austerity. The club are just watching the pennies at times and I think that's important, because we have to look after the future of the club - not just the present.

"But if you give me Champions League football every year I would take it every year."

Lennon's attentions are already on next season and getting another crack at the tournament. As such, he will look to the transfer market in January as he seeks to start bedding in new recruits as early as possible in order that they are ready to hit the ground running in July.

"The two strikers, Teemu Pukki and Amido Balde at the minute are suffering from a lack of confidence, but I think when we work with them over a period of time they will get better," he said.

"It's just a case of getting them bedded in and adapting them to the British game.

"But certainly in the forward areas we need to spend a bit of money to be really competing next year again.

"We will be looking in January with the July qualifiers in mind."

Meanwhile, midfielder Beram Kayal is out of action for the next six to seven weeks with a broken bone in his foot sustained in midweek against Milan.