As reported earlier by The Celtic Star, Brendan Rodgers gave a longer than usual media conference ahead of Sunday’s game against St Mirren that was extremely interesting to read as a Celtic fan…

Personally I think it gave a really insightful view of the going on’s inside Celtic Park at the moment with regard to player retention, potential signings and what the manager really envisions for this squad going forward.

I thought I would cherry pick a few of the comments that Brendan made and really look into them over my next few articles, dissecting what it means for the club both in the short term and moving forward through this season and beyond.

In this first article I’m going to look at players leaving and potentially players coming in. Since this interview it’s been pretty much confirmed that Matt O’Riley is on his way to Brighton so we don’t need to look anymore into that situation. The first thing that grabbed my attention was when the manager was asked about the speculation regarding Kyogo potentially garnering interest from mega rich Man City. As he answered the question he mentioned the following:

“The representatives get to work and they are going to create the speculation and see what comes from there. At this moment nothing new to add.”

Now although he was answering a question specifically about Kyogo he did earlier refer to all his players receiving speculation, however I did find the segment I mentioned interesting. We all know Kyogo has recently changed agency and is now with CAA Base, the same agency who brokered Ange Postecoglou’s departure from Celtic.

It felt to me like Brendan was telling us that CAA Base are creating these rumours to see what’s out there for their client, which isn’t positive news at all. Kyogo is a player, who at 29, I think a lot of us maybe envisaged staying with Celtic. He has always seemed at home at Celtic and perhaps gave the impression that he’s happy with where he is and was willing to give the best years of his career to us, a bit like Henrik Larsson did.

The change of agent definitely unnerved a lot of us and Brendan’s words have made me feel less confident that the fan favourite will see out his best days at Celtic Park. Unless Celtic receive a bid they can’t refuse however I can’t see him leaving this summer.  Later on in the interview when asked about the Man City interest, Brendan pretty much states this, saying he wouldn’t entertain losing his striker, whilst also saying there has been nothing from Man City, and that it was all ‘rumour and gossip’.

The next bit of Brendan’s interview I’m going to analyse is also regarding the Celtic strike force, and whether we will see another striker coming in this summer, as many expected. In a question about Daizen Maeda playing up top last weekend Brendan mentioned this regarding a third striker at the end:

“We could go into the market and maybe get a younger one from somewhere but the reality is our priorities are elsewhere. I have to look after that, but knowing that I have Kyogo, Adam and Daizen there as the third one – that’s where we are at presently.”

So I think that pretty much answers the question on whether we will be bringing another striker in. We won’t. To be honest I think the manager is right, we do have other priorities. I know people were suggesting earlier in the window to get Bojan Miovski and Idah in, or even Mathias Kvistgaarden and Idah but in all honestly no club can keep three top strikers all happy when playing in a team which only plays one up top.

Brendan had plans to give Rocco Vata the chance to be third choice striker which would have been a great opportunity for the youngster but he decided Watford was a better destination. A decision I feel he may regret in the future.

The manager saying that he was looking to move a young player from the academy into that role however should be a boost for other young attackers within the club to go and stake a claim this season. Put in the work to catch the manager’s eye and hope that he revisits this idea next season. The incentive is there.

Finally in regards to player movement Brendan was asked about Gustaf Lagerbielke and confirmed the obvious that he has no plans for him this season so the likely outcome will see the Swede leave Celtic either permanently or on loan. Most of us knew this was a certainty anyway. This lead to a question about would this mean Celtic looking to bring in another centre back which Brendan answered rather robustly:

“It’s something that we’re looking at anyway. It’s not new.”

So I think it’s pretty safe to say bringing in a centre back is one of our priorities this week!

In my next article I’m going to look closer at Brendan’s comments regarding Celtic’s transfer structure and what his views are on the way the club operates in this area, something which is proving so frustrating to many of us supporters.

Conall McGinty

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