Is this the first five players that Rodgers wants to move on?

At the Celtic AGM last week Brendan Rodgers spoke again of the need to move players on, this time in January.

The bloated squad that he inherited in the summer from Ronny Deila has been thinned down to an extend but it wouldn’t be stretching things too much to field three full XI’s on the same day if loan players were included.

Recently against Ross County Rodgers was able to make eight changes to his side and still come up with a convincing win.

Emilio Izaguirre and Dedryck Boyata probably featured somewhere on those lists but both players now appear to have a future at the club following recent events.

With a packed schedule of fixtures kicking off with Wednesday’s match against Barcelona the Celtic boss will need some depth to his squad but it’s likely that that will come from the younger element at the club with Liam Henderson and Ryan Christie being pressed into action.

The opening of the transfer window is around six weeks away, in an ideal world Rodgers would like to see the players in this gallery moved on.

EFE AMBROSE

Rodgers stuck loyally with the defender after some early season mistakes but since the arrival of Kolo Toure and return of Jozo Simunovic he has been an outcast, featuring in just one match in the Development League.

There were reports of interest from Germany and Turkey towards the end of the summer transfer window but with inferior terms and Celtic refusing to offer a pay off he stayed put.

The big question in January is whether anything significant has changed. If a contract offer for 18 months or more comes in you’d think that it would be tempting to kick start a career elsewhere rather than hold out for the last few months of a better contract.

LOGAN BAILLY

After 18 months at Celtic Bailly now finds himself as the third choice keeper with Dorus de Vries and Craig Gordon competing for the jersey.

Life as a keeper is a strange business these days with some happy to find job security and a decent contract rather than pushing for a first team place.

Bailly should be able to attract offers from Belgium but with 18 months still to run on his Celtic contract he may be happy to stay around.

KRIS COMMONS

There seems to be no way back for the former favourite, there are no longer updates on his injury situation as his contract ticks down.

Rodgers told the former Derby man early on in his tenure that he didn’t see a future for him so the move away from Celtic shouldn’t be too big a shock.

With his family very settled a move within Scotland will appeal, with Hibs the obvious destinstion, rather than jumping on the 46 game marathon of the English Championship.

GARY MACKAY-STEVEN

Returned to action for the Development side in the recent win over Aston Villa in the Premier League International Cup.

It’s a bit of a stretch to see him as anything other than last choice back up to James Forrest and Patrick Roberts.

He has had some highlights in the Celtic side since his February 2015 move from Dundee United but the English Championship is likely to offer more game time than remaining in Glasgow.

NADIR CIFTCI

Rodgers is nothing except diplomatic, players are never slammed in public with Ciftci even getting to wear the armband for the friendly with Inter Milan in Limerick.

However it is crystal clear that Ciftci has no future at the club although a four year contract should keep the wolf from the door.

Last January his agent Pierre van Hooijdonk managed to arrange a loan deal to Eskisehirspor with a similar deal likely to be getting worked on now. A permanent transfer seems highly unlikely.