In his recent press conference, Celtic manager, Brendan Rodgers, addressed key topics regarding the team’s transfer strategy and the expectations of the fans.
With an insightful and forward-looking approach, Rodgers shed light on the club’s plans for squad enhancement, the balancing act between adding young talent and established players, and the club’s response to the anticipations and demands of the supporters.
What Rodgers did make clear – Celtic are at capacity with developmental players and it’s time for quality. How fast we can get that in the door is not something the manager would speculate on.
There’s no doubt the press conference courtesy of CelticTV that he was sending a message to the power brokers at Celtic’s
On Adding Quality in Transfers:
“We need to add quality, not quantity… there’s no doubt that we have to add extra quality… the model of the club [involves] young talents that will develop and grow, but to continue to improve, you need to also have players that are established.”
Response to Fan Expectations:
“Supporters have every right to demand the highest level expectations… as the manager of the club, we want to always be progressing… it’s a club that’s very forward-thinking and wants to improve.”
Regarding the Summer Transfer Window:
“There was an anticipation in the summer that a number of players were going to move on… replacement players were brought in… but that didn’t happen and then we end up with a bigger squad than we anticipated.”
On Future Transfer Windows:
“For the group, [we] lost real quality players in the summer… that’s something over the coming windows that we will look to improve… we don’t need quantity of players, you need quality… that’s how you improve.”
Discussing the January Transfer Window:
“If there’s an opportunity to improve it in a January window then they will always like to do that… if January we can do that, then I’m pretty sure the club will give us every chance to improve the team.”
Brendan Rodgers has done everything there is to domestically. He was brought back by the allure of doing something in Europe. These next two windows are pivotal.