Johnny Kenny doing his Celtic debut. Ross County v Celtic in Dingwall. Photo Vagelis Georgariou
Q: Are you concerned that you might have just might be a bit light for Bayern Munich? Obviously, Johnny (Kenny) can do a job but Daizen is suspended for the first leg as well. So, don’t you have a huge amount of options, assuming that Adam is available?
Brendan Rodgers: “There’s no doubt that the squad is lighter. There’s no doubt, but we’ll work hard. We’ll focus in on this next four months. It’s a really exciting period for us, going into these games. We’ll have a tighter squad, but also a squad that is improving in development. I think that’s sometimes what gets missed, especially when you have younger players. I think there’s still improvement in this squad, but it’ll be tighter than what it was before. We sold some players on, made great money for them. Some have gone on loan to get more experience. As I said, we’ll work with the players that are here and it’ll be tighter than what it was before.”
Brendan Rodgers on media duties during the Champions League match between Aston Villa and Celtic at Villa Park on 29 January 2025. Photo Manjit Narotra PSI
Q: You mentioned the club perhaps learning lessons from the window. What things can you do better? Is it better follow-up planning, especially when you get things like qualifiers to maybe negotiate in the summer?
Brendan Rodgers: “I think in terms of that aspect of it, we’re all clear. I think I mentioned that before. We’re a club that understands that January window can be really important when you’re in the qualification phase, that hasn’t been the case for a number of years. But certainly in my time here, when we had to go through qualifications, January was an important window in order to prepare ourselves for that moment. I think in terms of that, it’s always been the case. I don’t think there’s anything new that sprung up to surprise anyone. We understood what we needed to improve the squads. We’re clear on that. Unfortunately, it just didn’t happen for us.
Q: The recruitment guys, do they now have a job on their hands to be ready for the next window? To make sure that when it opens next time, the club is ready to go and get the guys you need?
Brendan Rodgers: “Listen, I don’t want to pin blame on anyone here. I think as a collective, it wasn’t ideal how it ended for us. We have to, as a club now, go away and look at that, like we’ll do in every window, that’s what you have to do. You look around, of course, there wasn’t a great deal happening. But certainly all I was concerned was for Celtic and what I needed to happen here. So we’ll look into that and move forward.”
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