‘The best defender we had’ – Brendan Rodgers and Celtic criticised for letting player leave

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There have been a lot of changes at Celtic this summer.

Celtic fans have watched seven players enter the building, and 11 head in the other direction in either permanent transfers or loan deals.

The standout of them all was Nicolas Kuhn’s move to Como, but that’s not the deal that has frustrated Frank McAvennie.

Maik Nawrocki joined Celtic during the summer of 2023, at the same time Brendan Rodgers returned to the club, but for one reason or another, he was hardly handed chances, and now he is out on loan.

• READ MORE: Melbourne City chief breaks silence as Marco Tilio prepares to depart Celtic for a third time

Celtic could ‘rue’ call to let Maik Nawrocki leave

Nawrocki has joined Hannover 96, who are a big club in Germany, but they are languishing in the second tier and will be aiming for promotion ahead of the new season.

McAvennie thinks the Poland star was ‘outstanding’ any time he was handed a chance, and also thinks he was Celtic’s ‘best defender.’

Speaking on his Let Me Be Frank Podcast, McAvennie is hoping Rodgers doesn’t ‘rue’ the call to let Nawrocki leave this summer.

“There are a couple of players who went out,” said McAvennie. “I feel sorry for Nawrocki. He has gone out, and I thought, ‘that boy was decent.’ I really did. I thought he was a good player.

“I hope we don’t rue that. He never let the team down. He came in, five or six games, and he was outstanding. He was the best defender we had.”

Nawrocki’s stats at Celtic

At the end of the day, you can only judge a player from what he produces out on the pitch, and the issue with Nawrocki is that those chances were few and far between.

Only Rodgers can answer why, and it has to stem from him not being good enough, even though he looked at home when handed minutes.

• Games: 18
• Starts: 12
• Minutes: 1,081
• Clean sheets: 6

Nawrocki’s last two starts were Celtic’s 3-0 win against Hearts in March, with WhoScored handing him a rating of 8.05 for that game, and he was then dropped the following week.

He would return for Celtic’s 5-1 win at Aberdeen in the Premiership in May, where he scored, and once again, WhoScored rated him 7.82, but he was never seen again.