Brendan Rodgers gave a longer than usual media conference this afternoon ahead of the trip to Paisley on Sunday to take on St Mirren in the Scottish Premiership…
“I’ve been here before, I can manage it better now. It doesn’t make me any less ambitious. This is the club I want to be at.
“I want to do the very best because I know I represent the supporters to drive the team and the club forward. I think every manager has a moment during the transfer window where they are frustrated,” Brendan Rodgers.
As you would expect with just a week remaining in the transfer market, much of the questioning related to transfer speculation surrounding the likes of Matt O’Riley and Kyogo and the signings that Rodgers wants as much as the supporters. Will the Celtic Board get these deals over the line by the time the transfer window closes next Friday night?
Q: Have you got an update on the squad for the St Mirren match?
Brendan Rodgers: “We are in a good place at this moment. We have another 24 hours to go and we will see where we are. Kyogo should be back for the weekend which is good. I am not sure there were too many other ones that were out.”
Q: A few Celtic fans might have got worried when they saw Kyogo linked with a move to Manchester City. Can you enlighten us any more on that? Were you just as surprised as the fans were?
Brendan Rodgers: “No, not surprised. He is a wonderful player and just obviously looking at all the links and the gossip this week, I thought I was preparing for a five-a-side game at the weekend. We are going to lose all these players. There is always going to be that speculation around, especially going into the last week of the transfermarket. There is nothing new to add to any of that. The representatives get to work and they are going to create the speculation and see what comes from there. At this moment nothing new to add.”
Q: Matt O’Riley trained today as well. There are reports that a deal with Brighton is at an advanced stage. Is that the case?
Brendan Rodgers: “Matt trained this morning as he always does. He is the consummate professional and has been brilliant. There have been a number of offers gone in for Matt but there is nothing new to report or add to that either.”
Q: Whether it be Kyogo or Matt or any player does there come a point where it becomes too late in the window to accept bids as it is too late to get a replacement? Do you have a cut-off point in your mind?
Brendan Rodgers: “Yes. For any player, it is not going to go right down to the wire. We have got a big week next week after our game at the weekend. We will be preparing for our last game in this block of games. I wouldn’t want that to be interrupted at all. We are pretty clear on where we are and what it is we need to do. Currently at this moment in time, I am happy with the squad both on a level of quality and we have seen that on the field and on a human level as I am privileged to work with this group. We have seen that over the games that we have played. However, if we want to improve as a club we will have to improve the squad and that is something that has been very clear for a while. I am sitting here with a great bunch of players and you see the level that they are playing at, you see how they are working and you see the improvement which is great and that’s our job. However, after September and the international break, we will go into a really heavy schedule of games and for us to be competing in all competitions – domestically and not just participating but competing in the Champions League then we will have to do some work in the market.”
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It’s just more blarney from Brendan Rodgers. He gets very well paid for his “frustration” while the fans get short changed and lead up the garden path with feigned optimism. Brendan knows full well that little to no quality will be added to the squad by window’s end, but he cautiously tells the fans what he thinks they want to hear, always with caveats such as “hopefully we can add those players”, etc. IT’S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!
Every day for the past 3 months fans have been scrolling through the Celtic blogs and websites looking for positive news of quality additions to the team and every day all they get is rumour and disappointment. They know the money is there in the bank and they understand that it can’t all be spent on players, but they rightfully expect a sizeable portion of it to be allocated to team improvement for Europe. They’re ambitious for the club they finance with their hard-earned cash and yet every single transfer window they’re handed the same bowl of gruel by that greedy Board while men like Brendan act as their apologists. It’s no longer acceptable for a club the size of CeltiC and Brendan Rodgers should be declaring that openly. He has to man up and tell them that unless they invest in the team to give it the tools to compete with some dignity in Europe, then there’s no point in him being there. He won’t of course because he gets paid well and the fans get zilch!
send a copy of this to the Celtic View and see if it gets published. No wonder its called Pravda and the board the Politburo,Liewell as Stalin. Excellent Martin.HH