Gordon to sign new Celtic deal
CELTIC goalkeeper Craig Gordon has agreed terms on a new three-and-a-half-year contract and will put pen to paper this week.
An enhanced package for the shot-stopper was prioritised by manager Brendan Rodgers in January after the club rejected two bids from Chelsea before the midseason transfer deadline.
The Scotland keeper signed for Celtic in the summer of 2014 after two years spent out of the game battling a knee injury and has been operating on terms significantly reduced from those he enjoyed at previous club Sunderland, whom he joined from Hearts for a fee of £9million in 2007.
The 34-year-old’s future was placed into doubt following the appointment of Rodgers last summer, with Gordon dropping out of the team to accommodate new signing Dorus de Vries before regaining his spot.
Rodgers has lavished praise on Gordon for adapting his game to the team’s remodelled playing style and a deal has now been brokered that will tie him to the Premiership champions until the summer of 2020.
CELTIC had just edged out Astana in a nervy, awkward Champions League qualifier when Brendan Rodgers delivered a plea to the club’s faithful.
He said: ‘The supporters were unbelievable tonight but I think they need to show a bit of patience. They put the team on edge a bit tonight.’
Rodgers was reacting to grumbles from the stands as his players, under instruction from their new manager, attempted to circulate possession by playing back through the goalkeeper in a bid to break the resistance of the Kazakhstan side.
Six months down the line, he is happy to acknowledge that the crowd appears to have bought into his preferred style of play.
Just as Craig Gordon now looks infinitely more comfortable operating with the ball at his feet, so the fans appear relaxed at the sight of the ball going back to the goalkeeper before being dinked out to the opposite flank in search of a new angle of attack.
‘No team is going to open up against us straight away,’ said Rodgers. ‘When the game starts you are virtually straight into 11 players behind the ball giving you very little space.
‘So you have to wear them down and get them running. We have to work our way around the field to break the opponent down.
‘So that is the first thing. The second thing is the supporters. They are huge. This is why when I first came in I stated how important it was they become educated in the way we were playing because you cannot attack all the time.
‘You play back in order to go to the side to go forward. Early on there was a little bit of nervousness if the ball wasn’t going forward.
‘Now I think the supporters understand how we are working. They need that bit of patience when we are trying to break down teams in order to win the game.’
It’s rare to see Rodgers’ team race into an early lead but 32 victories from 33 domestic fixtures bears testament to the relentless intensity of Celtic’s play going in to this afternoon’s William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final against St Mirren.
While there is a determination to complete a Treble in his first season, Rodgers is already planning for next term.
He intends to strengthen his squad this summer with a handful of new signings to better prepare the club for another crack at the Champions League.
‘As we go on, I look to the summer and getting a few players who can really increase our level,’ added the Northern Irishman.