Brendan Rodgers wants Jack Hendry six-month loan deal

By David Walton

January 9, 2019

Brendan Rodgers has cleared up Jack Hendry’s future at Celtic, and stated he wants him out on a six-month loan deal.

The former Dundee defender cost Celtic £1.5million last January, but has struggled to convince many. A string of bad errors – mainly down to his passing – has seen him fall largely out-of-favour at Parkhead.

That’s despite the fact that Hendry actually featured in all six of Celtic’s Champions League qualifiers at the start of the season. Those matches were six of 14 Hoops outings this term for him.

Jack Hendry played in all of Celtic’s Champions League qualifiers this season (Naomi Baker/Getty Images)

And after falling way down the pecking order, Rodgers has revealed his plans for Hendry. Speaking to the BBC earlier today, Rodgers stated the following:

“He’s played really well in games and played in other games when there’s been pressure, so he’s had to deal with all of that.

“He’s at that age when he needs to be playing for the continuation of his development.

“The next best thing for him over this six-month period is to get games at the highest level he can in a good environment.”

Rodgers clearly still sees Hendry in his long-term plans.

Rodgers apparently also spoke about how clear Hendry’s potential is too. That shows that the Celtic manager still has high hopes for the struggling former Dundee man.

Rodgers is quite right too. At £1.5m, you can see why the club want some form of return here.

Hendry, however, simply needs to get a consistent run of games at his age. If he doesn’t it could be the case that he stagnates and regresses even further down in the reserves.

Hendry cost £1.5million from Dundee (Vagelis Georgariou/Action Plus via Getty Images)

It’s a sensible move from Rodgers, especially considering the likes of Sunderland are interested in taking him off the club’s hands temporarily. You have to wonder, however, whether he truly does have a place at the club in the future.

The sad reality is that Hendry will have to improve an awful lot to make it here. Consistent game-time can help him towards that, but there’s plenty of areas to his game that need improving.

The club are taking the right step at the moment. It will also be interesting to see whether Hendry ends up down south or perhaps elsewhere in Scotland.

Regardless, he needs to come back a much better player before Rodgers starts losing patience.