Quality not quantity is key in Celts summer shake-up

But an entire team – plus subs – will be missing.

Some, like Georgios Samaras and Mikael Lustig, have been given extra time to allow them to recover from the exertions of Euro 2012.

Likewise, Victor Wanyama, Emilio Izaguirre and Ki Sung- Yueng have been competing long into June with their respective national teams in World Cup and African Cup qualifiers.

But while their return will only be delayed, others have cleared out their lockers for good and will never again negotiate the winding road to the Lennoxtown training complex.

The plan is to replace them with better quality, while reducing the size of the squad which has been too big to be manageable – both in terms of working and wages – for too long.

Lennon also wants to ensure the path through to the first team for the promising crop of players blossoming in the youth ranks is not blocked by men who have little hope of impacting on his team selection.

Since he inherited a dispirited and unwieldy squad from Tony Mowbray, the manager has used the loan system to ensure there is space for everyone in the dressing room and the wage bill has been kept down, with, at times, almost a full team sent out to other clubs.

Occasionally, this has opened the door for a permanent departure, as was the case with Jos Hooiveld who did enough at Southampton to encourage them to bid almost £1million.

Others simply get the taste for playing regularly and are then more accepting of the notion they might want to cut their ties with Celtic, even if they have a season or two of their Hoops contract to run.

Efrain Juarez and Niall McGinn has done just this, along with Richie Towell.

Darren O'Dea is another who has spent the past few seasons out on loan. But, in the case of the Republic of Ireland defender, the hope remained deep within him that, one day, the call would come to return to Parkhead and pick up his first-team career.

However, the 25-year-old –who Mowbray made vice- captain the day he sent him to Reading on loan three years ago – has had to accept that, after further spells at Ipswich and Leeds, it was time to sever the umbilical chord with the club he joined as a schoolboy.

The year's option held by Celtic has not been activated, a fate also reluctantly accepted by 28-year-old Mark Wilson, whose knee problems have finally made it untenable for him to remain part of Lennon's squad.

Another trio of experienced defenders, Glenn Loovens, Cha Du-Ri and Daniel Majstorovic, have also seen their contracts allowed to run down.

And, while the Swede has already got himself a contract at AIK, and the South Korean has moved back to Germany with Fortuna Dusseldorf, the Dutchman will wait until he officially becomes a free agent this weekend before deciding where he next wants to put down his roots.

Despite his frustrating history of hamstring injuries, Turkish club Besiktas are reported to be ready to offer Loovens £1m per year to join them, but a return to England or Holland could also be on the cards.

At least Loovens has some medals – including, at the fourth attempt, a championship gong – to show for his time at Parkhead.

Pawel Brozek – whose loan move to the Hoops from Trabzonspor included an option to make the deal permanent – hardly even got a game during his five months at Celtic.

The Pole has now been allowed to return to Turkey from where he must try to find another escape route back to regular football.

Dominic Cervi was another player who saw very little game time at Celtic. But the American keeper's four years here was at least educational as he worked under the excellent Stevie Woods and alongside the likes of Artur Boruc, Fraser Forster and Lukasz Zaluska.

Forster's future at the club remains in doubt as he continues to delay accepting the contract offered to him.

Whether or not he converts his loan deal to a permanent move, the sum total of all this is activity is effectively a serious bit of housekeeping by Lennon.

If the manager has his way, the clearout will not finish here, with Morten Rasmussen, Daryl Murphy and Josh Thompson among those still classed as surplus to requirements.

It is a measure of how overweight his squad was that, despite the mass of players moved out, it's arguable if the slimmed-down squad now available to the manager leaves him any weaker.

With the exception of Forster, it's difficult to make a case for how any of the departures will negatively effect his side, though there is now a lack of experience which the manager aims to address in the next few weeks.

What is certain is that the money saved on wages, and the cash raised in transfer fees, will give Lennon a bit more to work with in the coming weeks as he tries to find the two or three pieces of quality he believes he needs to take his side to the next level.

One big sale – Ki remains the man most believe could be allowed to leave without significantly impairing the team – would give Lennon much more leverage in the market place.

The midfield remains the department of the team which is best furnished.

However, even allowing for this, the danger is that a big offer will come not for the South Korean, but for Victor Wanyama or Beram Kayal, men Lennon believes are crucial to the game plan he is formulating for a future which he hopes will include involvement in the Champions League.

After this summer's clearout, picking the 23 names required to be registered for that will now be a whole lot simpler.