Brendan Rodgers has given a timely re-assurance that the work is happening behind the scenes and that after a long meeting yesterday with the club’s two senior directors he remains confident that the targets that have been identified will be arriving before the end of August.

Celtic chief executive Michael Nicholson (centre) and Chris McKay, the Finance Director (right) Photo: Jeff Holmes

“I had a long meeting with Michael (Nicholson, CEO) and Chris (McKay, Finance Director) today. We know the targets that we want to bring in, there’s still a long way to go in the window,” Rodgers said as reported by Sky Sports.

My concentration is that we know what we want to do, we know the priority positions that we want to improve. Whilst the club are getting on with that, myself and the coaches are really focused on improvement of this team, both physically, tactically and technically.

“So at some point before the end of August I would expect us to have the players that we want in.

“There is nothing new to add, clearly there’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes but when there’s any conformation on it we will let you know.

“I make it clear to the Celtic supporters, we want to improve, we want to get better, we don’t want to just stand still this season. We know that we want to improve the squad and by the end of the window I would expect is to be all of that.

“But until that moment, there’s a lot of great work going on here with the players, some of the younger players who are developing really well. The players now are really tuned into how we are working and they are having a really good pre-season. It’s a really good starting point for the season ahead.”

There has been a lack of communication from the club, partially caused by the team being on tour in the USA, and that vacuum has created justifiable concerns that the club would not meet the manager’s wishes and the supporters demands for some of the vast sums of money that the club currently has in the bank, to be spent on the team to allow us to compete in the Champions League.

Celtic has an elite manager who understands the club and know the limitations that he has to work with playing in the Scottish Premiership with the budgets restrictions in comparison to the big five leagues in Europe. But even accepting that, it cannot be argued that Celtic has been able to match so many teams from smaller leagues who have punched above Celtic’s weight in European competition.

The worry too, in the absence of any recent update, is that the severe problems across the city at Ibrox, will be seen by the Celtic board as an excuse to keep the money resting in the bank as domestic success in the league looks increasingly likely in this coming season.

The are valid concerns and it’s correct that they should have been expressed in the Celtic fan media sites over the past few days. Someone on social media picked up on a paragraph or two written by James Forrest on The Celtic Blog, and savaged him for every word. Remarkable really as there was not one single word that was not spot on.

In previous times our former CEO appeared to have several of the first wave Celtic fan sites in his back pocket. Criticism was rare and we’d be lectured on financial prudence and the difficulties the club experiences in these transfer windows as moneyball become more important that football.

Even last season Brendan had to work through a large number of project signings to see if he could make anything from the squad he inherited from Ange Postecoglou plus the signing made last summer by the club.

Photo: Jeff Holmes

Now that the manager has won the league and cup and is having his say on the players we need to improve, he has to be backed. The Board according to Brendan are working towards this objective which is great to hear. They will be judged on being able to deliver and Brendan too will be pleased that they do.

Making them aware that the Celtic support broadly wants the very same thing as the manager – and nobody is being unreasonable here – is no bad thing.

The Celtic fan media has over the past few weeks given Brendan Rodgers the support that perhaps he needed and there is little doubt in my mind that during his long meeting with Michael and Chris the supporters concerns will have been duly noted.

That is no bad thing and it’s an example of the positive contribution that the Celtic fan media is making in holding the club to account when necessary.