Celtic hold the aces in any potential Brendan Rodgers transfer war

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There’s no denying that one of our biggest fears ahead of the close-season is Brendan Rodgers’ return.

Not as manager of course, even if he’s laughably eyeing up the job 10 years from now. But with regards to coming back and trying to pinch Celtic’s best players.

And why shouldn’t we be fearful? After all, he manages a mega-rich English Premiership club in Leicester City. The general consensus is that if they wanted anyone up in Scotland they could simply just take them, right?

There’s an element of truth in that. Everyone has their price after all, and the talent at Celtic is no different.

But the reason we shouldn’t fear any potential transfer raid is because Celtic have all of their top talent sealed.

Dedryck Boyata and Mikael Lustig have their contracts running out at the end of the season. Any potential extension for either looks unlikely. But in terms of the rest of the starting XI, Celtic don’t have anything to worry about when it comes to players leaving on the cheap.

Rodgers linked with top stars

Rodgers has been linked with both Kieran Tierney and Callum McGregor. Unfortunately for the Northern Irishman, Tierney is only in year two of a six-year deal signed back in October 2017.

McGregor, meanwhile, committed to a new four-year contract back in September 2017. Both of those targets are well sewn up at Parkhead, and it would take one hell of a meaty offer for Celtic to allow Leicester any contact with them.

Look at the other areas in the team too. James Forrest, for example, only signed a new contract THIS season. He’s not even a year into his four-year deal.

Up top, Odsonne Edouard only signed permanently in the summer. Olivier Ntcham was also tied up earlier on in this campaign too. Kristoffer Ajer was a little earlier, signing back in May 2018, but he’s still tied down for the long-term.

Celtic’s top talent are all on long-term deals in Glasgow. Does that mean teams can’t come in for them? No, but it does mean that all the aces are going to be held by Celtic.

If anyone wants the Hoops’ top stars, they’ll have to pay extortionate fees for them. The kind of money that could allow Celtic to strengthen in several positions.

So at the moment there’s nothing to worry about. Everything is in Celtic’s hands, and any potential Rodgers raid shouldn’t be too concerning.