With Brendan Rodgers looking to strengthen the Celtic team for next season, the Champions League money coming Parkhead’s way will make a massive difference to his transfer budget.
Celtic earned over £30m from last season’s Champions League exploits and by all accounts, the club is set to earn even more in the new upcoming format.
As we all know, a goalkeeper is top of Rodgers’ list after Joe Hart’s retirement and from all the speculation floating around at the minute, it seems the club is hard at work in trying to remedy that situation sooner rather than later.
Celtic are also in talks with Benfica to seal a permanent deal with Paulo Bernardo and Rodgers has made his intentions clear towards former loan striker, Adam Idah.
However, other positions in the side need strengthening and the Celtic boss could address two of these this summer without paying a penny in transfer fees.
Leicester City’s Luke Thomas could be free this summer
This is a player Brendan Rodgers knows very well from his time as a manager at Leicester City. Luke Thomas is a young left-back who won the FA Cup and Community Shield whilst under the Celtic boss’ tutelage at The Foxes.
Thomas was a regular feature in Rodgers’ Leicester side after making over 85 appearances for the club over the three-season tenure of the Irishman.
Now at Middlesborough on loan, Thomas’ contract expires at the end of this month and, as yet, there has been no indication whether the newly promoted Premier League side wishes to extend it.
Another former England u21 international, Thomas is a left-back who can also slot into the left side of midfield.
At just 22, the Leicester defender has plenty of years ahead of him to develop but even at such a young age, he already has 68 appearances in England’s top flight which shows he can do it on the big stage.
West Ham’s Ben Johnson’s contract situation
We discussed back in February how Johnson would be an ideal signing for Brendan Rodgers to help bolster the Celtic backline.
The West Ham defender’s contract was well into its final six months and it seems that four months on, whilst talks are ongoing to extend his contract, reports suggest that the Premier League club are resigned to losing to a player who was heavily involved in their Europa League winning campaign last season.
Predominantly used as a right-back, Johnson would provide good competition for Alistair Johnston and his versatility means he could easily slot into the centre-back and left-back positions if required. [Transfermarkt]
Reportedly on £20k per week, Johnson wouldn’t break the bank for Celtic and at just 24 years old, the former England U21 fits the signing policy profile for Celtic.
So it just goes to show, that even if you have the Champions League millions at your disposal you don’t necessarily need to spend them to get quality.
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