A broken man? Has Rodgers given up on his battle to modernise Celtic?

He wasn’t quite a broken man but there was no bounce, energy of enthusiasm about Brendan Rodgers as he faced the media on Friday afternoon, apparently to preview Sunday’s match at Aberdeen.

After a few token questions about the action at Pittodrie it was down to the real business, Celtic’s lack of transfer business.

There was no requirement to get an update on Rodgers’ contract situation, the transfer stand off confirms that the manager won’t be putting himself through the same process again next summer. A club (board) appointed manager will be in place preparing for European qualifiers while telling the media that he is still hopeful of some new faces before the transfer window closes at the end of August.

Rodgers has tried his best to get Celtic to function like a leading European club operating outside of the five richest leagues, he has tried to create a set up similar to outfits like Club Brugge, Benfica and PSV Eindhoven but the need to even up old scores is the motivator at Celtic Park, not evolving into a progressive club that can expect to be in the last 24 of the Champions League most seasons.

While those three clubs are looking at and signing players in the 10m euros bracket Celtic are being laughed at by Go Ahead Eagles after bidding £1.75m plus add-ons for Jakob Breum.

Whatever the circumstances of the February 2019 departure Rodgers answered the phone call from Dermot Desmond in 2023, met up with Michael Nicholson and Chris McKay in Mallorca and returned to Celtic on a three year contract.

At his introduction media conference he praised the brilliant recruitment work of Mark Lawwell which was followed by the sabotage attempt that involved Odin Thiago Holm. Marco Tilio, Maik Nawrocki, Yang Hyun-jun, Kwon Hyeok-kyu, Gus Lagerbielke and Marco Tilio.

Rodgers got over that, delivered a domestic double then followed it up with a promising Champions League run with Celtic taking nine points from six matches before Christmas.

As he looked to strengthen ahead of a probable knock-out tie he found that his success wasn’t appreciated. As reward Kyogo Furuhashi was sold, no replacement signed, Daniel Cummings thrown into a Champions League debut and only two useable substitutes away to Bayern Munich with Celtic one goal away from their greatest European result this century.

It has been downhill at a remarkable rate since Nicolas Kuhn scored in the Allianz Arena.

Rodgers tentatively discussed ambitions and aspirations, Michael Nicholson opted to consolidate the Bank Balance further while the goals of Kuhn and Kyogo were removed from the managers options.

Last Friday’s reference to not being a continuity manager looks like the last throw of the dice, in public it has been met by silence, the reaction inside the Celtic boardroom can only be guessed at.

Previewing the match at Aberdeen Rodgers had no news on transfers and no expectation that the squad will be strengthened for the August 20 Champions League Play Off.

Some might conclude that there are people in power at Celtic not especially interested in being involved in UEFA’s primary competition.

1 minutes 10 seconds:

Asked if there anything new to report on players arriving or leaving Rodgers said

I’ve got nothing new for you, no. It’s very clear what we need to improve, and a lot of work is going on clearly by ourselves and probably every club. That’s the reality of this time of the year, there’s a lot of work going on throughout many clubs.

I know the work that Paul [Tisdale] and his staff are putting in. So yeah, we’re hoping that we can conclude some deals and improve the squad.

As a football club, we will want to have the best available squad that we can to get through the season. I mentioned it before, I think a manager always wants it now, you know, to prepare the team as early as you can. But we know the window shuts by the end of August and hopefully by then everything is in place, we’re all stable and then ready to go.

QUESTION: I think that a lot of fans are asking why deals haven’t been concluded, especially for wingers and in the attacking areas. Is that a complicated answer, are many things needed?

I just think that obviously there’s many things that go into it. I don’t do the deals, so I can’t answer that for you, but I know that behind the scenes, obviously, there’s a lot of work, there’s a lot of discussions that go on to conclude deals.

I’m hopeful that come the end of this window, we will have those deals concluded and we get the players in that can help us go forward. I think the focus now at this moment for myself is to really make sure that the players that are here are in the best possible condition, best mindset to play the games and and that that’s where we’re at at this very moment.

Asked if he expected deals to be completed in time to play in the August 20 Champions League Play Off, Rodgers said:

I really don’t know. That’s my honest answer. We just have to keep working to look to get the players in and in the meantime work with the players that are here to make them the best that they can be

There are three weeks left in the transfer window, it promises to be car crashing viewing as Rodgers is put in front of the media to preview each match.

Before Friday’s League Cup tie at home to Falkirk a squad of 25 has to be registered with UEFA for the Champions League Play Off matches on August 20 and 26.

It would be a shock in any signings were made for those two matches, integrating them into the side will be near impossible, the best hope would be to sign a potential impact sub.

The signing of Ben Nygren on June 27 confirms that Celtic can identify and conclude deals for first team ready players.

Only Nicholson can explain why with a bank balance of £80-100m at the start of the transfer window that he has been unable to sign players ready to make an impact on the Celtic first team. So far in the current window the club is sitting on a surplus of £20m, it would be a surprise if no more players were sold.

Since the sale of Kyogo and the matches against Bayern Munich the decline in performances and results at Celtic has been obvious, unfortunately it seems that Rodgers is the only person inside the club concerned by this and looking to drive improvements.

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