Bren dan’s swipe at the moneymen

BRENDAN Rodgers has taken a thinly-veiled swipe at the players he wanted to ship out of Celtic.

Defender Efe Ambrose has been left out of the Hoops’ Champions League squad after failing to agree a move to Belgian side Standard Liege.

Kris Commons and Kristoffer Ajer are also absent from the group of players eligible to play in the group stage of the competition.

Rodgers has been trying to reduce the size of his squad since he took over the Parkhead hot-seat but is finding it difficult.

He clearly believes that money is the main motivation for several members of his squad.

He said: “The modern game is simple for players.

“It’s about game time or money – simple as that.

“Some players will not be overly bothered about game time but they’ll take the money.

“In years gone by it was never like that.

“We’re left with the players, the market is shut – which is great because it stabilises everything now – and we know where we’re at.”

Rodgers has made it clear he still views the Celtic squad as a work in progress.

He added: “I’m learning lessons as a manager.

“You have to ensure that you’re strategically building your squad and we’ve done some great work over the course of the pre-season that has energised the team and hopefully the supporters.

“The next stage of our development will be to look at it again in January and then in the summer.

“We’ll still only have had three windows in our first year but hopefully there’ll be a marked difference in the team.

“There are too many players at the club at present.

“I always go for quality more than quantity.

“Our recruitment team will be working very hard and we will see if we can identify someone to do business in January.”

Meanwhile, Rodgers is hopeful both Leigh Griffiths and Kieran Tierney will be fit to face Rangers on Saturday.