Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has hit back at what he believes to be a negative mood surrounding his club’s transfer business this summer.
The new Scottish Premiership season begins in less than 24 hours and the Hoops are arguably in a weaker position than the end of last season.
Two new goalkeepers – Viljami Sinisalo and Kasper Schmeichel – have been drafted in, but Paulo Bernardo is the only outfield acquisition fans have had to talk about so far.
There is a coherent need for the squad to be further strengthened, but the manager is remaining patient, and won’t be moved by outside influences.
“I’m not going to get bogged down by the negative, toxic energy that comes around transfers”, he said (Football Scotland).
“We’ll work with the players we have, we know we’ll make them better, we know as a club what we need to do and what we need to improve and we have just under four weeks to be able to do that.”
Although there is still a month for the Scottish champions to get things right in the market, fans are becoming restless by the day.
While the manager won’t get carried away with the negativity from some supporters, he does recognise the need for more quality to be added to his team.
“It’s always about quality, that’s what is key”, he said.
“We had a good squad last season but we needed to improve on that. Thus far, we’re still short even on those numbers. Paulo coming back is great but we’re still short on that. The guys have been working so hard behind the scenes, we know what we need to do.”
Celtic face a busy last few weeks of the transfer window as Rodgers and Co. look to get the squad up to a worthy standard.
Wee naysayers like James Forrest are the toxic culprits, too many flapsters in the fan base- we know Lawwell is a knob but read Alex Gordon’s piece- PL has NOTHING to do with transfers- at least we’re no’ Huns- Hail hail to that.
I agree with your Forrest comments Pedro, it’s all about him,”the infallible one” constantly massaging his ego. HcHugh writes more about Sevco than Celtic, all paranoia, on what is supposed to be Celtic news.
Not going to buy into claims that we are weaker than the team that finished last season whatsoever?
Ridiculous argument imo?
Will continue to look at how our 25man squad is finalised by the end of the window, especially as we will be depending upon them players hugely in the 1st half of next season?
Only need to look back on our 25man squad last season, to see just how unsettled as a squad we had in operation?
Also, 5 changes to that 25man squad with possibly a few more to be included still?
So are we actually weaker to where we were a year ago?
Not a chance of it imo?
Glad Rodgers has called out the bed wetters in our support, who seem more interested in trying to make excuses for Rodgers and his process taken and decision making that he’s currently undertaking imo?
Our players are currently looking like far better players now, within the structure of how Rodgers wants to set our team up for next season already.
The 1st half of last season was littered by such inconsistent displays, good few between halves of matches, and when we were poor, it was at rank rotten degree?
Are we really expecting the same early doors of this coming season?
I certainly can’t vision the likes again myself?
Believe that there will be a few changes to our provisional 25man squad currently in place, before it’s finalised by the close of this window imo?
That will involve some big decisions to be made by Rodgers also, regarding current players?
Yet it still seems that we have an element within our support, who will be happy enough if Rodgers doesn’t get to finalise his squad for the coming season imo?
Still believe that we will have a strong all round squad in place by the time the CL squad is confirmed imo?
Which in turn, will not allow anyone within Scottish football from stopping our dominance either?
Still believe CL is Rodgers main focus, and will be looking to make big improvements for ourselves in that venture?
So he knows only to well, of the squad requirements he’s currently looking for?
Weather he gets his main targets is a totally different matter altogether, that doesn’t warrant any answer until the window actually shuts imo?
We have just seen possibly the most productive pre season, I can ever recall, so what is there on show at present to suggest that this coming season won’t follow suit either?
And that’s without even having a finalised squad in position still, with another 4 weeks to do so?