Brendan Fraudgers!

BRENDAN Rodgers sat down with Odsonne Edouard’s agent yesterday as he made a fast start on his summer recruitment plans but warned Celtic fans not to expect “fortunes” being lavished on new signings. The Parkhead side are basking in the glory of the first double treble in Scottish football history and already have £30m in the bank but the Northern Irishman admits there is a little prospect of the kind of game-changing investment which could might be able to transform their chances in the Champions League. Instead, much of the focus will remain on developing a group of players, many of whom are already in what Rodgers calls their ‘asset age’ between 25 and 30, and who have already achieved something no other Scottish team ever has.

“Without being defeatist it’s always going to be very, very difficult for us,” said Rodgers, who is keen to make Edouard's loan deal from PSG into a permanent transfer. “The first challenge is to qualify and we have extra games this year. It depends what success is in Europe. What is success in Europe for a Scottish club?’

Without being defeatist it’s always going to be very, very difficult for us,” said Rodgers, who is keen to make Edouard's loan deal from PSG into a permanent transfer. “The first challenge is to qualify and we have extra games this year. It depends what success is in Europe. What is success in Europe for a Scottish club?’

“We have to invest and improve. But the reality is that we can’t spend fortunes because there’s not masses of money there to do that. We can’t go and spend £110 or £120million.

“I need to push even harder now next year in relation to developing the players here first and foremost. And then bringing in players who can make a difference. There’s a constant need to improve. We have a really young group that are improving and developing, but to make a difference at that level needs greater quality.”










TWO years almost to the day after he sat above the plush Majorcan resort of Port Adriano with his future wife Charlotte to toast his appointment as Celtic manager with a glass of champagne, Brendan Rodgers will return to the Balearic island this week to drink in everything he and his team have achieved since. Saturday’s William Hill Scottish Cup final victory against Motherwell means the Northern Irishman has a two-year period to survey which can put even some of the all-time greats of Scottish football management in the shade, but this is no time for self-congratulation. Like all the best football managers, Rodgers’ mind is already ticking onto the next campaign, and working out how Celtic can get better still.

“When does the panic set in?” he joked. “Probably midweek. I’ll be sat in Majorca and it will all kick in. But I think it’s great for the people to enjoy - we had a brilliant day yesterday for a great servant of the club in Browny. Then I will get away Monday and rest for a bit, which is important. I will re-energise and then it will be thinking about going again next year.’

“It can be a challenge to switch off,” he added. “There is always work to do, but in order to have the resilience you have to break the cycle. You have to come out of the battle and rest and recover because that gives you the energy to go again.”

Eventually a domestic trophy will come along which Celtic won’t win. It was a minor crisis back in December this season, after all, when they were beaten for the first time in a domestic match. But it is still anyone’s guess when that will come along. Having completed the first ever invincible treble, and now the first double treble, Rodgers, a master of motivation and goal setting, will already be setting his sights higher. Why not Scottish football’s first-ever treble treble? “You could never imagine it could go as well as it has,” said Rodgers. “From the first day I walked in to the club it’s been amazing. It’s always complex, it’s never as easy as it seems when you win, a lot of stuff goes on behind the scenes. All the interests are aligned at the club and that allows me to work in confidence. But to think we’d be standing here two years later having created history, no, I’d be lying if I thought that.”

No two eras, of course, are the same. Rodgers has come to the club, and contributed wholesomely to, a unique period of Parkhead dominance, but considering how many of Scottish football’s greatest names – Jock Stein, Martin O’Neill, Bill Struth, Walter Smith, even Sir Alex Ferguson – were unable to complete a double treble, perhaps the most startling thing of all is that over the course of 61 domestic matches, Celtic rarely had to be at their very best this season. “I think what we gained from this year is that when you’re not always at your best you can still win,” said Rodgers. “But as a manager I have to push them harder.”

What the Northern Irishman is blessed with – to use a phrase he coined in relation to Tom Rogic – is a core of players in their ‘asset age’ between roughly 25 and 30, precisely the age range which so many of their rivals find hard to hold onto. You could easily rhyme off Rogic, Callum McGregor, Stuart Armstrong, James Forrest, even given the experience they have at their tender years, Kieran Tierney, Olivier Ntcham and Moussa Dembele. As so often was the case this season, the fact most of them put typically sterling shifts in for the cause on Saturday was enough to take this showpiece away from a game Motherwell side.

“Twenty five to 30 is when you are making lots of improvements as a player and that is your asset age,” said Rodgers. “When you develop a player for a couple of years you don’t want to lose that experience or you can be back to square one.”

Celtic under Brendan Rodgers bring a meticulousness and professionalism to their preparation which few of these other great sides of Scottish football past can match, even if there was an ad hoc aspect of their celebrations, Tierney taking a banner from the crowd with the legend ‘Double Treble’ written on it. Motherwell scrapped away as you might have expected but their cause essentially seemed lost as soon as Celtic had snaffled two goals in the first 25 minutes. There was no shame here for the Fir Park side, even if they could have been more pro-active to stop Callum McGregor pouncing to score a sweet right-foot opener. Gael Bigirmana struck the angle of post and bar, and Elliot Frear was just out of reach of Ryan Bowman’s header, but the only other goal was a low strike from Ntcham which flicked Kipre’s heel on its way past Trevor Carson.

 

Before mass panick sets in about not being lavish with cash I would fully expect it to be only 3 or 4 decent signings in the Ntcham and Sinclair bracket with a raft of departures and a much smaller squad

 

"We can't spend 110 or 120 million"
I'd be happy if we spent 10% of that

 

Can't spend 120million, sometimes I wonder what they think we demand at board level.


I'd be surprised to see us spend that over the course of 8-10 years, let alone one season.
15million would be more than enough in one window.

 

I think he is pointing out that it is difficult to compete with the teams that do. This season Swansea, West Brom and Stoke all got around £100m despite relegating. It is what other clubs offer.
How much we spend depends on how much we get in transfers. However even if we get £20m on Dembele we would not spend £20m. We seem to have had around £8-10m each of the last 2 seasons, and if we get money on Dembele you could see that rise to £15m.

 

15_20m should be the budget for the summer thats without any big departures ..manager has earned it imo and then some to try progress in europe we need a few higher class of players to make the difference.

 

Should be and would be are two different things.

 

All we need is a few players of good enough quality. Our profile is surely big enough to attract that kind of player at the moment.

 

You would think that but some will just be happy to sit in the bottom of the Premiership as they earn good money. To some footballers it is about money. Also others see playing for Stoke as a way up to Chelsea and Man United, but in reality we know it usually does not work like that. Just look at the table below and see how much money these clubs can give mediocre players. On top of this you have sponsors, ticket revenue, merchandise and food/drink at games. They can afford to * £10m on a player and if it fails it is no biggy. We spend £2m on a player and it fails and the manager gets shat on.

 

Brendan says we have a young squad with great potential so if we sign Eduoard maybe after that he is looking at a couple of experienced players with european pedigree.

 

Theres a good standard of football down here but the crazy money involved makes it boring and dull, people are starting to notice this as we celebrate our sucess and as a club weve done everything we can to raise our profile.
Im hopeful that we can find the right signing this window because its not too much to ask considering our position at the moment and the quality weve already signed in recent times.
Europe has and will always be important so we need a squad ready to qualify and do well in the group stages, for that we need too spend more than two million. Weve seen in Broony and Ntcham how we can spend four and a half on a 22 year year old and develop them into thier prime, im sure if we spent double that we could get a solid defender in who we can rely on.
I trust Brendan will have a sucessful window despite playing it down, it will be tough regardless.

 

Ntcham shows what a bargain you can get for £4.5m but in reality that is just chump change to these teams. Look at Cardiff, they spent £6.5m on a striker and he didn't score as instead he decided to just get * and do his Duncan Ferguson impression. Buying a good quality experienced player for £4.5m is difficult in English football. The top scorers for Peterborough and Barnsley (League 1) have £4-5m price tags on their heads.

Brendan can have a good transfer window but he has to be careful with what he spends. People have attacked the club for signings that cost £1m be a waste of £1m. This is a club that at the very most has spent £6m on one player (Sutton and Hartson).

 

If we keep some of our big players from this year that alone will be a great result....tom signed and if Edouard signs then that is huge news.....get them young and let them fall in love with the place and then maybe they will sign.
But it does drive me nuts at times when we here about our tens of millions and we just dont spend some windows.

 

when Brendan talks people tend to listen , Imagine being a young player in the game and having him as your manager couldn't ask for anyone better to improve your game.

 

We need a tough battle hardened experienced defender ,leader ,doesnt need to be a fortune ,who can win headers and not be bullied .

 

exactly, if we sucured that type of defender who can lead the back line then we can look at a few squad players depending on who leaves but some more solidarity at the back is what we need.
Do we need to get extra lucky with a young player like VVD who fits those characteristics or are we in a position to go out and get a proven defender who might stay here for a while, alot are sceptical and its tough to compete but i think we are moving quickly as a club and are becoming more apealling for players who want to win things and become sucessful.

 

Good to see Brendan acknowledging we won a lot this year while being below our best in a large percentage of games and that he needs to push the players harder next season. I fully expect to see us having another domestic season on par with the Invincibles (although maybe not another Invincible treble ).

That english TV money is disgusting. Soulless is the word. We live within our means and honestly our transfer windows are far more interesting than a club with £200 million budget every season. Far more satisfying when we find quality like Virgil, Wanyama, Ntcham for bargain prices.

Said before, I think it would be boring af to be handed oceans of cash to spend every season, I wouldn't find it satisfying if we got success that way.

 

Another 3 players at the same level as Ntcham and we're laughing.

 

just buy as much as the french under 19s and 21s as we can possibly afford