Rodgers speaks out on duo he expects to leave Celtic

Brendan Rodgers has spoken out about the expected departures of Mikey Johnston and Gus Lagerbielke.

Johnston was given a brief run off the bench away to Hibs in the SFL but Lagerbielke hasn’t even made the bench in the three competitive matches played so far this season.

Neither player has much of a future at Celtic with Burnley and Sheffield United linked with the winger over the last week while Heerenveen and Lecce have shown interest in the Swede.

There has been a mini clear out at Celtic in recent weeks with Bosun Lawal and Yuki Kobayashi the latest departures.

More than half a dozen players on first team wages are still out of the picture such as Maik Nawrocki, Liam Shaw, Adam Montgomery while James McCarthy remains something of a mystery having signed a contract that runs until 2025.

At today’s media conference Rodgers said:

MIKEY JOHNSTON (18 min 50 sec)

Mikey had a difficult period of injuries for a couple of years but he’s well over that now. He really showed a real robustness last season when he trained right the way through and had some nice impacts in games for us.

He needed to go out because he wanted to play more and did that at West Brom. He did that really well and that will clearly bring some attention to him. We’ll see how the next week goes and take it from there.

GUS LAGERBIELKE (19min 50 sec)

I think to be fair to Gustaf, to go and play would be important for him. He and I have spoken on this here. It’s been a difficult move for him but I have to say he’s been absolutely brilliant – every day in training.

I recognise how difficult it has been for him for at times not to be on the bench and to be training here as a small group on a Saturday morning or Sunday morning.

He’s never once wavered from being the ultimate professional and for me, he deserves the chance to go and play.

He’s not been in my plan to play but he’s been a great teammate and a real privilege to coach. He deserves an opportunity to go and play and we’ll see what that looks like.

Johnston looks likely to leave on a permanent basis on the back of his form at West Brom but with four years left on his Celtic contract it seems that a season long loan is expected to be agreed for Lagerbielke.

Despite the stated ambitions of Rodgers no new outfield players have been signed since Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah were signed in January.