Celtic are busy preparing for a pivotal January transfer window and it seems the month could throw up some surprising transfer business.
Just six months after arriving at the Bhoys, defender Gustaf Lagerbielke is one of the players who may well leave Glasgow.
The Scottish Daily Mail [16/12 print edition, back page] reports that Celtic are willing to listen to offers for the Swedish international, alongside Japanese talent Yuki Kobayashi.
Kobayashi himself only arrived halfway through last season and to let go of two recently-signed defenders would be a damning indictment of the club’s recent transfer business.
While the former Vissel Kobe talent arrived on a free transfer, Lagerbielke is reported to have cost the club as much as £3m in a deal done with Elfsborg.
Brendan Rodgers not messing about with Celtic transfers
Despite the optics, if the manager feels Lagerbielke isn’t going to hit the standard required at the Bhoys then he should play his football elsewhere.
The 23-year-old had a huge moment scoring the winner against Feyenoord on Wednesday night but he has only made six starts and doesn’t look any closer to breaking into Rodgers’ first-choice eleven.
There were different circumstances last year but Moritz Jenz went through a similar thing with Ange Postecoglou.
Rodgers has indicated that he would like to cut his current squad of 32 or 33 down to around 25 core players.
Difficult decisions are ahead and not all of them may look good for the club after a pretty troubling summer transfer window. That doesn’t mean they aren’t necessary.
If it also coincides with the club putting a focus on quality acquisitions rather than a scattergun approach to signing young players with potential, in the end, this ruthlessness may benefit Celtic’s forward direction.
In other news, 3 changes, boost for Rodgers; Celtic Predicted XI vs Hearts.
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