“The squad is not as strong. That’s the reality,” Brendan Rodgers

Ange Postecoglou would often tell us that the objective for the next transfer window was for Celtic to come out of it stronger than we went in and that certainly was achieved during his time at the club.

When the Australian left the club to join Tottenham Hotspur just before the summer transfer window opened, Brendan Rodgers was enticed back to Celtic by a concerted and coordinated effort from Dermot Desmond, Michael Nicholson and even Callum McGregor and the Irishman was sold on the vision for the club.

The structure of the transfer market strategy was outlined and with recent successes under Postecoglou which brought in players like Kyogo, Abada, Starfelt, Jota, Carter-Vickers, O’Riley, Hatate, Maeda and others it certainly looked like it was working and there was no doubting that the objective of being strong coming out of the window was being met.

The supporters believed that Rodgers had been promised the funds to recruit to take Celtic onto the next level. He was inheriting a treble winning team but one that had underachieved in the Champions League in terms of results, and it’s a results business after all.

A few top signings could make all the difference. Since then Celtic have continued to sign ‘project signings’ – young talented players from around the world who may well break into the first team but at the moment they have plenty of development needed under Brendan Rodgers before that’s going to happen.

Jota moved to Saudi Arabia for £27million – money the support realise the club could not turn down and the player wanted to go anyway. We lost Carl Starfelt, such an under appreciated player at Celtic, and his worth may only now be realised after his move to Celta Vigo. And Aaron Mooy hung up his boots due to an ongoing injury problem. Fair play to him, he could have spent a year on the treatment table.

Yesterday Brendan Rodgers, already out of the League Cup, losing at Kilmarnock his first ever domestic cup defeat as Celtic manager, spoke about Celtic now being WEAKER than before as we head towards the closing week of the transfer window. He was only saying what just about every Celtic supporter already knows but it’s encouraging that the manager recognises this and is prepared to state it as fact, publicly.

So Celtic have a week to achieve their stated objective of coming out of the transfer window strong than they went in and that is going to mean dipping into that Jota windfall (remember Benfica got a significant cut) and spending double digit millions in the closing stages of the transfer window.

Anthony Joseph at Sky Sports yesterday reported that Celtic were looking at bringing in a goalkeeper, a left back and a winger. Brendan Rodgers then accepted at his media conference that he’d need to bring in a central defender having lost three central defenders for significant periods in the last week or so. And there is an argument for Celtic needing another quality striker on top of that.

“I’m not going to beat about the bush when I’m talking about the bush,” Brendan Rodgers said yesterday, as reported by Scottish Sun. “The squad is NOT as strong. That’s the reality.

“We’ve lost top players and we’ve got players out for a period of time, so I can’t disagree with that. The point I will make is that we will work very, very hard here to try to improve the squad.

“There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes within the recruitment and trying to identify players that fit into the model. That will continue. There is no doubt that we lost a matchwinner in Jota, we lost Carl Starfelt who was a regular player in the squad. You then look at Cameron Carter-Vickers being out, a mainstay of the team over the last couple of years.

“Reo Hatate too. OK, he’s not quite been at the level he has been at, but I’m pretty sure he would get to that very soon. So, all of a sudden you are missing players of that quality.”

And on the club’s stated objective about being in a strong position at the end of the window then the start, Rodgers reckons that this is still possible. “Yes, hopefully we will be. I would say we have strengthened the squad, it is the TEAM we need to improve.

“There has been a lot of really good work done on bringing in Yang and Odin Holm and all these guys, who will end up, I’m pretty sure, being very good players for the club.”

Celtic’s season could be defined by what happens in the transfer front over the next week. When the team is realised for tomorrow’s game against St Johnstone compare it to the Celtic team that started for instance in the Scottish Cup semi-final against theRangers at the end of April. If we go to Ibrox next weekend with a strong team then that we will know that then the objective has been met.

Otherwise we’re going backwards again. Hibs got hammered in the Conference League this week, Celtic were planning to be more competitive in the Champions League this season after a year finding our feet last time around. That’s a worry, at this stage anyway.