Ahead of his second season back at Celtic, Brendan Rodgers during the summer 2024 transfer window re-shaped his squad to suit his own vision…
The Irishman has a double strategic objective of building on Celtic domestic dominance in Scottish football while at long last making an effort to re-establish the club as a contender on the European stage in the new look Champions League.
Essentially, Rodgers added eight players to his squad and all are heavily involved in the Celtic first team squad this season. An incredible 19 players left the club, including Joe Hart who decided to call time on his playing career and Matt O’Riley who joined Brighton and Hove Albion with Celtic receiving a record fee of £30m.
The club also received between £5-10m for other players included within the list shown below, with several leaving for undisclosed fees. That all ups to more financial joy for the club akin to clearing up on new casino sites not on Gamstop or getting another £25m windfall from Saudi Arabia as happened the previous summer when Saudi Pro League outfit Al-Ittihad took a fancy to Celtic’s then Superstar from Portugal.
What is clear is that Celtic ended this exercise with a transfer surplus on the dealings within the summer 2024 transfer window, the overall number of players at or around the first team went down considerably while the overall squad appears stronger with pretty much two viable starters for every position within the team.
Last weekend, in between the Champions League group stages match against Belgium Champions Club Brugge and last night’s top of the table clash with Aberdeen at Pittodrie, Celtic played Ross County at Celtic Park. Rodgers was able to make half a dozen changes, with four of those coming into the side all scoring, as the Champions romped to a 5-0 win.
The players rested returned last night and despite extreme weather conditions with heavy rain, freezing conditions and winds gusting in from the North Sea at over 50 mph, Celtic still maintained their superb start to the season with a 1-0 victory thanks to a wonderfully worked goal from Japanese international midfielder Reo Hatate.
Celtic has taken 40 points from 14 league matches this season, dropping just two points along the way. Rodgers will lead his side out next weekend at Hampden in the League Cup Final against theRangers but before that there are two games, in the Scottish Premiership this Saturday where second bottom Hibs are the visitors and in the Champions League on Tuesday evening away trip to Dynamo Zagreb where a place in the knock-out stages can be secured by either side with a win.
There’s a visit to Ibrox on 2 January 2025 but these upcoming three matches are hugely significant to Celtic’s season and Brendan Rodgers will have it in his thoughts to maintain that squad rotation strategy with numerous changes expected on Saturday for the match against Hibs.
Following the success of this plan last weekend, the Celtic manager was asked if the squad players who had come in and done so well against Ross County had given him something to think about before naming last night’s starting eleven at Aberdeen. Not really, he replied, as he already had the team for the Aberdeen game in his mind before that match at Celtic Park last weekend. Rodgers also corrected the journalist on his ‘squad players’ description, insisting that they are all starters.
Against Hibs the Celtic team that won so well last weekend will be back, so expect starts for the likes of Liam Scales, Alex Valle, Luke McCowan, James Forrest and Adam Idah. The one name missing from that list is Paulo Bernardo and he seems to have edged ahead of the club’s record signing Arne Engels, so the £11m Belgium is therefore likely to be in the Celtic huddle ahead of kick-off a minute or so before 3pm on Saturday afternoon, with Bernardo rested for Zagreb.
This will give Rodgers the fresh legs he’ll need in the Champions League match, then there’s five days for recovery and preparation for the League Cup Final that every Celtic supporter desperately wants to win.
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