Bullish- Rodgers defends Engels, Idah and Trusty against his critics

While Celtic fans wait for their club to spend bug in the transfer market Brendan Rodgers has defended last summer’s most expensive signings.

When Celtic started their defence of the SPFL Premiership at home to Kilmarnock there was no sign of Adam Idah, Auston Trusty or Adam Idah on the team-sheet.

With Kyogo Furuhashi injured Idah was signed on August 14 with Trusty and Engels arriving on August 30 alongside Luke McCowan.

Those four arrivals were funded by the sale of Matt O’Riley, having missed out on pre-season training then being faced by international breaks in September, October and November as they tried to settle in to a new club.

Idah and McCowan had an idea of what to expect but on August 30 Trusty and Engels switched to a new country with a Champions League campaign a few weeks away.

To their credit Trusty, Engels and Idah made big contributions to Celtic’s Champions League campaign, taking 12 points from eight matches and reaching the last 16 Play Off.

Post Bayern Munich Celtic’s form dipped with the exception of Daizen Maeda.

Before that it became trendy to criticise Engels, Idah and Trusty, questioning their contribution compared to the money spent to bring them to Celtic.

Indirectly it has been a criticism of Rodgers, ahead of tonight’s match against Ajax he stood by his biggest signings, telling the Daily Record:

There was a bit of focus around the players who came in last year and question marks around what they brought.

For one, they didn’t set the price. But, two, Celtic did as well as they’ve done for a decade and those guys really helped us.

Trusty was outstanding in the Champions League. Engels, his running power, was really helpful for us, he’s a young player who will get better.

Idah scored over 20 goals and still has improvements to make. It depends on perspective. I felt we needed physicality and power for the Champions League and that really helped us.

Those players have still more to develop. Whether a player costs £250,000 or £12m, I’m not really concerned. I’ve seen and worked with players who have cost more but others who have cost less but are much better players.

I’m not really fixated on, ‘I need £10m, £15m or whatever’ – I just need quality players.

Just over a week away from the start of the SPFL Premiership Kieran Tierney and Ben Nygren are the only genuine additions to Rodgers Starting XI.

Against that he has lost Greg Taylor and Nicolas Kuhn while Jota is out with a long term injury.

The side that finished the Scottish Cup Final in May highlighted the lack of quality and depth that Celtic have outside of a group of perhaps 12 players.

August brings trips to Pittodrie and Ibrox alongside a Champions League Play Off which goes a long way to explaining the worries and concerns of supporters at the lack of transfer activity.