If Lagerbielke and Nawrocki can’t get a game ahead of Scales and Welsh then the dreadful reality is that Celtic currently has one quality central defender and that surely isn’t good enough…

Gustaf Lagerbielke and Maik Nawrocki are very much seen surplus to requirements under Brendan Rodgers, and one can only assume they must be regarded as not being good enough. Why? Well if they can’t get a game ahead of Liam Scales or Stephen Welsh then that’s all the proof you need.

Brendan of course sees them more on a daily basis than ourselves, but are they really that bad? Lagerbielke for instance is a Swedish international and Nawrocki has looked like a player with great potential whenever he’s appeared for the Celtic first team.

Or could there be another reason for their non inclusions in recent squads? That reason being that Brendan is firing a message to the board that he won’t tolerate their meddling when it comes to recruitment?

It’s pretty obvious that both players were signed without the input of Brendan much like Yang and Kwon both whom also find it hard for regular game time, or in the case of Kwon none at all.

I’m not having a pop at Liam Scales or Stephen Welsh. Particularly in the case of Scales who has worked hard to earn his place in the team, but like Welsh it’s glaringly obvious that he too is not good enough to be a regular starter in the first team, a squad player yes, but not a first pick starter.

If Brendan has no intention of playing both Lagerbielke and Nawrocki then it’s a matter of vital importance and urgency that we bring in a quality centre back for the challenges ahead this season. A quality defender alongside CCV with Scales and Welsh as cover would be adequate.

Hopefully that’s part of the late August transfer plans alongside at least one striker, a long awaited left back and a  midfielder if Matt O’Riley is sold as expected.

On Friday at Lennoxtown, The Celtic Star asked Brendan Rodgers about getting his squad ready for the challenges of European football through the remaining activity in the summer transfer window.

We asked Brendan: You mention European football. The club has a large surplus of cash in the bank, and if we’re going to strengthen and have a real crack at the Champions League then surely it’s now or never this season?

Here’s a reminder of what he said in response to that question from The Celtic Star:

“I’ve always said that recruitment is vital for success on the football pitch. Bringing in the players that allow you to elevate the game. Especially when you go up in the Champions League then the recruitment of players is crucial.

“Especially in the big clubs, if you don’t get it right then you have very little chance to put it right. If you don’t bring in a player that suits your style and is suitable for the football that you want to play – improving that player when there’s very little time is very difficult.

READ THIS…Sandman’s Definitive Ratings – Celtic at Stadia Opiumo

“That’s why you want to get in not just A player but the RIGHT player who can elevate you and the team’s game and that he’s a sufficient level. It will allow you to improve. That’s absolutely key. I’m looking at by the end of the window for signings, and that is when you can judge.

“I know that supporters want to see that team on the pitch, and as managers, we want the players in quickly and integrated. At the end of it, if we can get to the end of August and have a stronger squad than what we finished with last season, it will still be a successful window for us.

“The point you make is absolutely correct – to have success on the football pitch, you need to recruit, and you need to recruit the best possible players you can, if you want to achieve in European football.”

ON CELTIC SHORTS…“I don’t need him to score forty a season,” Brendan Rodgers on Kyogo

So no recruitment means a guarantee of no success in European football and with it a further decline in the Scottish co-efficient that will catch up with us so that even if we win the league, we’re going to have to go through multiple qualifiers before a future summer window closes, and we’ll all watch those horror movies in previous summers.