Brendan Rodgers yesterday signalled a suspension of Celtic’s signing policy of project or development signings as he eyes quality ‘first team ready’ signing in the January transfer window, while aiming at the same time to dramatically reduce the size of his squad.
The Celtic manager currently has a bloated first team squad with three goalkeepers, eleven defenders, nine midfielders, seven wingers and two strikers and don’t forget that there are ten Celtic players currently out on loan.
Then there are players in the Celtic B Team who will be looking at the congestion ahead of them roadblocking their own ambitions of making it into the Celtic first team. This was never much of a priority under Ange Postecoglou but at least it was getting discussed.
There’s little to no chance under the current situation at Lennoxtown and if Celtic is going o develop players from within the Celtic Academy structure then plans have to be in place and players given their chance when merited. The Ben Doak situation and numerous others have surely flagged that up as a weakness within Celtic’s current transfer strategy.
Celtic dropped points at Easter Road in Saturday as rather than bring in fringe players from his squad the Celtic manager opted for just the one change from the starting line-up against Atletico Madrid and that was through the Reo Hatate injury in opening minutes of that Champions League match.
His replacement Paulo Bernardo played for most of the match then was selected again at Easter Road, so effectively the same team from midweek was used on Saturday and the leg-weary performance was there for all to see.
This is not something that Brendan has just noticed. He inherited a squad and the signings that were in the pipeline from the work that Mark Lawwell and his team have been doing under the previous manager and has now assessed the situation and wants to alter things to suit the way he wants to shape his squad.
“It is more quality than quantity, for me,” Brendan said to the written mainstream media yesterday, as reported by The Herald.
“I think there will be more out than coming in. I think there will be players who will be here for six months and won’t have played. Like I’ve said before, it is no fault of them. The squad is obviously a lot bigger than I would want. So, I think there will be more players who will look to go out and get game time.
“And of course, hopefully over the coming windows we can look to improve the quality of the squad.
“Listen, we have enough – what I would say – development players. I think it is clear. And I love that, it is what I have done all my life is work with those players. But you certainly need ones that can come in (to make an immediate impact).
“We already have a number of those development players, so it is genuine quality we hope we can bring in across the coming windows.
“Your squads are 25, which is 22 plus three goalkeepers. It is not ideal. I think there were younger players that were going to come in and see how they develop.
“Then there was the notion, which I know for sure was the case, that there were some guys that were thinking of leaving before I came in. Then obviously a new manager comes in and there can be a change of heart. They don’t leave, they stay and that is how your squad ends up where it is at.
“So, it is that mixture between players coming in to develop and ones that decided to stay and not move on. But I think over the course of the next couple of windows we’ll get the squad down to a workable group.”
Asked if he’s spoken to the players in question yet he said: “I haven’t as of yet. Just after the window shut it was a case of speaking then to some of the players that didn’t get out.
“I said, listen let’s see how we go over the course of the next six months. If it doesn’t quite work out with game time then, of course, we’ll look at it in January. Some of those players have had game time, and will be happy, and there will be others that feel they will want to play.”
We’ll take a look today at the squad and who might be heading for the exit door – whether going out on loan or being moved on – in January or next summer.
Matt Corr’s new book Majic, Stan and the King of Japan is out now and Neil Lennon, the Celtic captain that season, has written the foreword for us.
You can get a signed copy of the hardback version direct from Celtic Star Books by clicking on the image below. It’s also available an an e-book via Amazon Kindle and please note that all colour photographs that appear in the beautifully presented printed hardback book are also available in the Kindle version of Majic, Stan and the King of Japan…
