Celtic target one more signing for qualifiers
BRENDAN RODGERS admits he expects to make just one more signing to aid Celtic’s assault on the Champions League qualifiers.
Rodgers was known to be on the look-out for roughly four players this summer and has already tied up one piece of business through the purchase of Aberdeen winger Jonny Hayes.
He is also in the market for a defender, creative midfielder and striker, but believes his current squad is strong enough to be entrusted with the job of seeing off either Linfield or La Fiorita of San Marino and beyond.
The former Liverpool boss expects to tie up one deal before the first qualifier in mid-July and then intends to exercise patience until the market around the English Premier League starts to display its goods.
‘We don’t need quantity, we need quality,’ said Rodgers, who led Celtic to the Treble in his first season in charge.
‘There are two players in particular, one of whom was Jonny, and another who we would hope we can get in.
‘Then I would hope we can get through the qualifiers with the players who have got us to this stage. I then want to wait and see.’
Rodgers has been linked with loan moves for fringe Chelsea attackers Tammy Abraham and Charly Musonda, and Liverpool midfielder Lucas Leiva and winger Harry Wilson.
‘The way it works in England is that teams come back early-mid July,’ added Rodgers. ‘They then have their pre-season training, go away and come back to assemble their squad at the end of July.
‘That still gives you five weeks or so to see the level of players that some of these clubs aren’t looking to take on.’
BRENDAN RODGERS is planning to make Celtic one of Europe’s elite clubs, according to Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill.
And the ex-Hibs and Dundee United star is convinced that his countryman is in it for the long haul at Parkhead — even if English Premier League clubs come calling.
When it became clear that Ronny Deila would be leaving Glasgow, O’Neill was a candidate for the job before Rodgers was appointed.
While O’Neill has flourished on the international scene in
the last year, Rodgers won a Treble in his first season in charge of Celtic and did it without a single loss.
As a resident of Edinburgh, O’Neill is an avid watcher of Scottish football and has been hugely impressed at how Rodgers has delivered so quickly and so stylishly.
But the Northern Ireland boss, on course to be involved in a World Cup play-off later this year, refutes suggestions that Rodgers has it easy in Scotland. He also believes that the new four-year contract the Carnlough native signed in April was a signal of intent.
‘Brendan has done a phenomenal job with Celtic,’ said O’Neill. ‘People may look at who he is playing against, but to go unbeaten through an entire season in the League and the cups is incredible. At any level that is an amazing achievement.
‘Obviously, Brendan will want to repeat the club’s domestic success but I think Europe and the Champions League will be very big for Celtic this season.
‘I think his focus now is to build Celtic and be competitive in Europe at the higher level of the European game.’
O’Neill is confident that Rodgers will be around to achieve that massive goal.
‘I don’t get the impression Brendan is looking to leave Celtic in a hurry,’ added O’Neill. ‘He is at a massive club and will believe he still has a lot of work to do there.
‘He has been at Liverpool and is now at Celtic. That’s two huge clubs where he has been the boss.
‘I’d say Brendan is now one of the most well-established managers in Britain.
‘He is admired at Celtic and I’m sure he is relishing the new season.’
Rodgers is not O’Neill’s only compatriot managing in the Scottish Premiership. Neil Lennon is back in the top flight with Hibs, while Stephen Robinson kept Motherwell up last season and Tommy Wright continues to perform heroics at St Johnstone.
O’Neill makes no bones about how he feels about Wright, who was previously his goalkeeping coach at Northern Ireland, admitting he is staggered that Wright is still at McDiarmid Park on the back of all he has delivered at the club.
Saints ended the last campaign with a record top-flight points tally and secured European football after a fourth-place finish for the third season in a row.
In 2014, the 53-year-old led St Johnstone to their first major trophy success, winning the Scottish Cup.
‘I’m amazed Tommy is still at St Johnstone given the job he has done,’ said O’Neill.
‘Everyone is looking for these young or foreign coaches and sometimes you don’t recognise what is under your nose.
‘Tommy is very capable and, wherever he goes in the future, I know he’ll do his next job well.’
On the quartet, O’Neill said: ‘I think that Northern Ireland should be proud that there are 12 teams in the Scottish Premiership and four of them are managed by Northern Irish guys.
‘That’s testament to the level of our coaches.’