Brendan Rodgers isn’t trying to kid on the Celtic support about the strength of the current Hoops team.
It’s been a hectic few months at Celtic, with Rodgers returning to the club and multiple first-team players coming and going.
The likes of Maik Nawrocki, Odin Thiago Holm and Hyunjun Yang have all been signed this summer, and the club have actually spent a decent chunk of money.
But key first-team stalwarts have also moved in the other direction. Jota, Carl Starfelt and Aaron Mooy have all departed the scene for different reasons.
When you add in current injuries to the likes of Cameron Carter-Vickers and Reo Hatate, it’s fair to say that our squad is looking pretty fragile.
And Rodgers wasn’t trying to sugarcoat that fact when speaking to the media on Thursday.
“Listen, I’m not going to beat about the bush when I’m talking about the bush,” he said, as reported by The Herald.
“The squad is not as strong. That’s the reality. We’ve lost top players and we’ve got players out for a period of time, so I can’t disagree with that.
“The point I will make is that we will work very, very hard here to try to improve the squad. There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes within the recruitment and trying to identify players that fit into the model. That will continue.
“But there is no doubt that we lost a match-winner in Jota. We lost Carl Starfelt who was a regular player in the squad.
“You then look at Cameron Carter-Vickers being out, a mainstay of the team over the last couple of years. Hatate too. Ok, he’s not quite been at the level that he has been at, but I’m pretty sure he would get to that very soon.
“So, all of a sudden you are missing players of that quality. So, we have to improve, and that is what we will look to do.”
Rodgers did go on to say that he feels the overall Celtic squad has been strengthened during the window, in terms of depth. He mentioned Yang and Holm when making that point.
Overall, it’s pretty hard to disagree with what he had to say. The overall squad does have more capable players, when the injured lot return at least.
However, we are significantly down on first-team ready players. Jota, Starfelt and Mooy were all big contributors at different points in our treble winning campaign. Starfelt has arguably been replaced but Jota and Mooy certainly haven’t.
Rodgers’ honesty is refreshing but it is action that the Celtic support now want to see in the final week of the window.
It’s not an exaggeration to suggest that our season could depend on the business that is done between now and September 1.
In other news, a positive picture seems to be developing for Celtic in their pursuit of Luis Palma
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