Brendan Fraudgers!

Love the guy but I tend to tune out most of his interviews now as he talks a gargantuan amount of contradictory pish. Going on about rating Scott Allan as a person, liking him as a player, trains well blah blah blah but he's given him about 1 game in 3 years to prove himself! Then ships him out to replace him with loan kids. Stuff I'm hearing about Weah & Burke is the exact same pish he was spouting about Lewis Morgan 6 months ago. Guy has had one start under him! List goes on I'm afraid. Compper, Mulumbu, Hendry, Gamboa all of them getting the big licks from Brendan then come in and barely kick a ball. Yet he persists with underperforming guys game after game.

 

Personally wouldn't dream of criticising anything Brendan has done here. We're lucky to have him and his record speaks for itself.

 

For those Celtic fans still eagerly trawling social media sites for hints and clues about the possibility of further signings, there was some good news yesterday afternoon as Brendan Rodgers reaffirmed that he would still like to make a few new additions before the end of the current window.

It is not, however, looking as though the much coveted centre-half will arrive before the end of the month.

With Dedryck Boyata and Filip Benkovic committed to the club until the end of the season when Boyata will be allowed to walk away from the club for nothing and Benkovic will return to parent side Leicester City, there was an expectation that a central defender would have been a significant wish this month.


Rodgers, though, appeared to be fairly relaxed about the situation as he reflected on the fact that a player of the quality that he would ideally like to add to the squad is a difficult find in the middle of a current season.

“I think that will be very difficult to do that this month,” admitted Rodgers. “To be brutally honest, if we were to bring in someone of the quality we require they would want to play. There are positions we’ll look at but that is one where a couple of our key players will move on and will need to be replaced.

“Obviously, we have young Kris Ajer and Jozo Simunovic already here. It’s an area of the team we will find it tough to strengthen in January but it’s a must to do that in the summer.

“It’s a possibility that we will spend more in the next couple of weeks. We’ve brought in a couple of loans and a young boy with potential. I’m not sure – it’s down to availability and also to what’s affordable from the club’s perspective.

“But I think we’ll look to add to our squad. There are also a few lads we’ll be sending out on loan but there are still key areas we’ve been looking to strengthen over a period of time.

“We hope to do some more business if we can but there’s nothing to add to the speculation. Ya Ya Toure? Well, his brother’s here but he’s not one we’re looking at.


“Scott McTominay is a talented young player but there’s nothing to add to that and the same goes for James McCarthy. Agents will strategically throw out a name to stick in the papers but then I’ll get a call from them asking me if I’m interested in the player because they read that I was; you know the game.”

Timothy Weah could be handed a starting jersey for Saturday evening’s Scottish Cup tie against Airdriewith Odsonne Edouard still toiling for full fitness. With Leigh Griffiths’ treatment still ongoing and the player not back in the fold at the club, it means that the onus for taking the forward role will wither be given to new arrival Weah or to Mikey Johnstone who deputised in there already last month.

The expectancy is that it will be Weah, with Rodgers confirming that the new faces are set to be on show on Saturday.

“Both Timothy and Oliver will be in the squad,” said Rodgers. “Oliver has been training and playing away because there is no winter break down south and Timothy has also looked good. [Vakoun Issouf] Bayo isn’t in the country yet. He is still sorting out all of the paperwork and, hopefully, will be with us by the weekend.”

Of more concern will be Kieran Tierney’s ongoing absence.

The full-back missed the run-in to the mid-season break with a hip complaint and is expected to remain sidelined for at least the next few weeks. Tierney was in Dubai with the rest of the first-team squad last week but did not take part in full training, but rather went through his paces with the medics.


With the Europa League game against La Liga side Valencia looming next month, Celtic would be frustrated to lose the influential Scotland internationalist for much longer.

“He’s not fit,” said Rodgers. “He’s still with the medical team and hopefully over the next few weeks we will see where we are at. There’s no timescale, no. Will he need an op? I’ve not been advised of that yet by the medics. We will wait and see but the pain is less than it was.

“The Valencia game is too far ahead to say. We’ll just have to see over the next few weeks.”

And Rodgers will not look to trim his squad before the window closes with a number of players expected to head for the exit door. The Celtic manager, though, has urged them to follow the example of Ryan Christie and look to go and develop themselves before proving they can then cope with the demands of the Celtic first-team.

“There are different types of loans,” said Rodgers. “There are players who will go out because they don’t have a future at the club and he needs to create a market for himself to go and get a move. There is a development loan, the likes of Ryan where you think they need games in their legs so they need to play and go out and if they improve and develop then it gives them a chance, as we have seen. Kristoffer Ajer went out for a year and worked on what he had to improve on, came back into the squad and has played a lot of games.


“Ryan is the same. He had 18 months out which worked really well for him and when he came back he has taken his chance which is a great credit to him. It is a lesson to all young players. You might be on the periphery but you need to get games into your legs and sometimes that means going out for six months and play.

“Ultimately the responsibility will be with them if they can go out and perform, do well then Ryan is the shining light in that it can work for you.”

 

So thats no CB in this window confirmed.

I honestly dont * see whats so difficult about bringing one in now as oppossed to the summer.

"They would want to play" ? Of course they would want to * play. seriously * is he on?

Am i being too harsh here or is he actually saying he'd rather play a loanee and a jumpship, both with NO futures here before he'd bring in a permanent player to compete? Does he think boyata, who will be in hiding for the rest of the season will give more than a new CB looking to impress?

Is he actually * saying he's going to wait... again, to * sort out this * of a defence?

One of two things is going on here. He's either * clueless when it comes to defenders and what this side requires defensivley, or hes making excuses for the board refusing to release sufficient funds until other cb's have flew to coop.

Either is * unacceptable.

Say bye bye to the CL... again

 

If we don't sign a first team right back and centre back in this window then we really do deserve everything we get.

 

* absolute joke now btw.

 

Agreed, sign a CB and play them ahead of boyata, or even benkovic. They're not going to be here next season ffs

 

That comment about signing a CB is genuinely one of the most baffling I’ve heard from any manager.

He doesn’t want to bring in a quality CB because they would want to play ahead of Boyata and Benkovic? So even if we signed someone better than them he wouldn’t play them because he wants to go with they two even though they won’t be here next season?

* wit

 

Neither will he by the looks of it. To me this has the ring of someone that is thinking * it, it'll be someone else's problem to fix in the summer.

 

He shouldn’t be immune to criticism, but people who consistently stick the boot in will regret doing so once he eventually leaves.

 

If I was him I'd be tempted to move on just because of all the rumour surrounding his desire to leave, much of which is spun on these fan forums.

 

In the grand scheme of things, he gets paid well to manage the team he supports, he won't care what a handful of people on a Celtic forum think.

I do think he'll go in the Summer though

 

Incredible lack of foresight from both Rodgers and the club.

Why does playing wantaway Boyata or on-loan Benkovic take precedence over the ongoing progression of the club and our chances of Champions League qualification next season?

It's a clear contradiction from what he said prior to his first January transfer window:

‘January is an important window for a club like Celtic, with one eye on Champions League qualifiers,’ said the manager. ‘It’s important if you have ideas of going into European competition so early in the summer. It gives a new player a bedding-in process before hopefully kicking on.’

Absolutely scunnered about the way our club is being run. Everything is reactive rather than pro-active.

 

Aye will be a joke if that’s how it plays out..

 

I really do believe the defensive issues are down to him and the recruitment team mainly rather than the board. He gets excited over attacking players and recruitment of defensive players players has been *. Only Benkovic has installed himself as a guaranteed start.
Boyata is not even that good, he gets exposed whenever against a half decent side. I think you could replace him easily even with someone in our league or English league 1.

 

This is so we’ll be happy when McKenna signs

 

Who in the league is as good as Boyata? Who's (theoretically speaking) getting in that Belgium squad? Definitely not McKenna. Paul Hanlon? Andrew Considine? Christophe Berra? No chance. Boyata's unpopular because of his open desire to move, but he's a better defender than any other team in the league has. Ambrose would have been the best of the rest centre back in the league before leaving Hibs.

 

Those comments don't fill me with confidence. In fact they're downright bizarre.

We need to strengthen the backline, most notably central defence and right back. Additional midfielders is all well and good, strengthening the forward line was necessary too, but the defence has been poor for a long time, and in 6 months time it's going to get dramatically worse.

The squad is painfully badly balanced just now, with a lot of deadwood. It's popular to blame Lawwell, but imo Brendan has to take some criticism for this too. There's simply no way there are no defenders out there within our budget that would improve us.

 

Most of our squad is better than any thing else in this league but we need players that can cut it at a higher level as well as domestically. Boyata is, has been and will continue to be a bombscare and is continually caught out/shown up against mediocre European sides. Much like Lustig, Gordon and a few others who we have needed to replace for some considerable time now. Yet here we are going into the 2nd half of the season with the exact same problem positions unaddressed.

 

He clearly has no clue when it comes to defenders. Was the same at Liverpool.