Brendan Rodgers has alleviated fears that Celtic aren’t going to add anymore players to their current set-up towards the end of the transfer window, insisting he has to be patient to find the right quality of player to enhance the squad for a tilt at the Champions League. It comes after he admitted nothing was in the pipeline in relation to new faces yesterday afternoon.
The manager was asked directly about both Ryan Fraser and Daniel Podence but said there was nothing to report on transfer news. He didn’t outright dismiss those two names, as some have suggested, he merely stated that there was nothing to give away on the recruitment side of things, as it stands anyway.
Many had arrived at the conclusion that means that those two names aren’t ones that are being looked at internally by the club, however, Rodgers didn’t dismiss those players when offered them in questioning – just swatted aside the question more or less. So he could be being deliberately evasive and there might be something going on behind the scenes as we tick down the days, hours and minutes to Deadline Day.
Rodgers has expanded on his answer a bit more and it seems that the Irishman is on the constant lookout to sprinke his squad with quality, but that in the meantime, it’s a waiting game to see who might become available the closer we get to the shutting of the current transfer window. “There’s obviously names that will get thrown out there but there’s nothing to say on them. There’s nothing imminent,” the Celtic boss said via Football Scotland.
He said: “I still think we need to improve the squad in certain key positions. There’s still a way to go. It’s never straight forward, especially when you are looking to get really talented players. But I would hope by the end of the window we would have done some more business.”
Paul Gillespie
Still remains debatable at present as to weather our potential CL squad is actually stronger currently than what we had last season imo.
Of course current injuries would swing it towards far weaker, but still remain uncertain regards the time lines involved?
Also have to remember Ange wasn’t able to field his strongest 11 in any of the CL games, especially as he intended to use the same 16 for matches if everyone was available.
In that regards we should have more options available this time around, with the added experience for so many of the players.
Course Jota is a huge loss and hope a decent replacement is found upon our left wing, as the alternatives currently are somewhat lacking in the quality he could provide.
A few other positions still remain questionable currently, especially if injuries become or remain a big factor to ourselves.
Still say we will end up with a stranger squad overall for CL this season even if concerns are growing at this stage
The club has been taken back 5 years to a period where signings depended largely on CL qualification. The difference being now that we have automatic CL qualification and still Lawell will not part with the cash. This is precisely why Rodgers the rat was given the job in the first place, a yes man who is happy to take the money and run at the first opportunity. I genuinely fear for this season.