RODGERS: MY BHOYS WILL STAY FOR EUROPE
Rodgers backs key stars to stay at Celtic for Champions League charge
BRENDAN RODGERS believes he will keep ALL his key players for the summer’s crucial Champions League qualifiers – and is confident he will add to his squad before the first game in July.
The Celtic manager signed a four-year deal on Friday after getting boardroom assurances about his transfer budget for the next window. Rodgers biggest outlay to date has been the £3.5million spent to bring Scott Sinclair to Parkhead.
And with this season’s Champions League money available, the Northern Irishman is in a strong position regarding who is sold and bought on his watch.
Asked if he was confident his big-name players would still be at the club when the qualifiers begin, Rodgers said: “Yes. I would like to think going into the qualifiers we’ll be a stronger squad. We’ll retain the ones we have and then, touch wood, be able to make the additions we want.
“I think there is a real happiness in the
EVEN a footballer with all the talent in the world can look like a Sunday pub league player with a dodgy ankle when his confidence has gone.
Equally, an average footballer can appear Zindanelike given enough pats on the back and warm words of encouragement.
Stuart Armstrong last season was most definitely in the former category. The player who made everything look easy at Dundee United seemed incapable of doing two things right in a row. It was difficult to watch.
Former Celtic player Simon Donnelly was firstteam coach at Tannadice when Armstrong began to make a name for himself.
His form won him a move to Celtic which started well and is now at the stage in which he’s hardly put a foot wrong.
It was the bit in the middle which proved sticky and Donnelly could see his former player suffering and knew why.
Donnelly said: “Stuart has been different class. He’s taken confidence from the manager showing belief in him and there’s no better feeling.
“Last season he’d be starting games and then looking towards the dugout after 55-60 minutes, expecting his number to be held up.
“That affects your performance but he’s gone from strength to strength under Brendan Rodgers, for Celtic and now for Scotland.
“It’s possible that he might not still have been at Celtic if Brendan hadn’t come in. When he and Gary Mackay-Steven went to Celtic, I thought they would both succeed.
“They made an immediate impact but maybe the realisation of just how big a club Celtic is got to them. Whatever the reason, it didn’t work out for them last season.
“Celtic were a bit stale then but they’ve got their swagger back and Stuart’s one of their main players.
“I go back to the League Cup semi-final against Rangers when he and Leigh Griffiths came off the bench and changed the game. He hasn’t looked back since.”
Rodgers accepts his 25-year-old midfielder is good enough to cut it down south but as Donnelly knows all too well there are few better places to play football than Parkhead.
He said: “You need to appreciate what you have. Stuart is playing in a side going for a Treble while trying to achieve something that’s never been done before by going through the domestic season unbeaten.
“He’s part of the Scotland set-up as well so Stuart should focus on where he is now and keep developing.
“Down the line, if he moves down south then it would need to be to one of the top clubs. I wouldn’t see leaving Celtic to join a mid-table Premier League club as being progress.
“But he could handle it, as he proved in the two Champions League games against Manchester City, when he was immense.”
Simon Donnelly was speaking at a William Hill media event. William Hill is the proud sponsor of the Scottish Cup.