Brendan Rodgers has lowered expectations on Celtic’s January transfer business to bringing in one or two.
After being knocked out of Europe by losing away to Lazio in November the Irishman revealed that when he arrived in June he felt that four quality additions were required.
Jota, Aaron Mooy and Carl Starfelt left the squad with the demeanour of Rodgers suggesting that none of the seven summer arrivals were considered as first team starters or upgrades on last season’s regulars.
Mark Lawwell has had more than six months to identify the type of player that is needed to boost the Celtic first team but there isn’t much in the way of speculation to suggest that there are signings about to be rolled out.
Speaking to the Daily Record about his expectations for this month Rodgers said:
We’ll hopefully have some of the injured players back and maybe one or two in the door. Then we push on for the second half of the season. There will be no winter break next season and that’s a real shame.
I think if you look at players throughout Britain, and especially up here, you see the amount of injuries. That’s especially true if you’re playing European football.
The players aren’t robots but somehow it’s deemed that they are. But we’ll take the break this season, for sure, and maximise the time to get some good work in.
Last January Celtic had Alistair Johnston, Tomoki Iwata ans Yuki Kobayashi signed up before the transfer window opened with Oh Hyeon-gyu arriving towards the end of the month.
At the end of June Celtic reported that they had £72m in the bank, with another Champions League campaign to their credit that figure is unlikely to have dropped as Lawwell goes into the January window.
? LISTEN: “I felt when I came in the summer that we probably needed four quality players.”
? Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers says the club are working hard to add top level players to their squad. pic.twitter.com/1xwfCY5Zab
— Clyde 1 Superscoreboard (@ClydeSSB) December 1, 2023
This demonstrates the lack of footballing ambition the Board have manifested since Lawwell first walked in the door.
Lawwell clearly unhappy with the result at the weekend. He’s determined to make it as difficult for Rodgers as he can.
Same scenario brewing as last time when Rodgers was here.
Lawwell and his useless laddie need chased before they hand the league to the cheating huns.
Based on past events, it’s difficult to see these sort of statements as anything other than him working his notice – there’s clearly some distance between his ideas and those of the chequebook holder and his lackeys. Here’s hoping he leaves it to the end of the season this time, and wins the league so it is at least his decision.
That £72m (if estimates are correct) will earn maybe 10% p.a. interest in the bank (assuming that they have the wit to invest it there)!