It’s a situation as a manager where, if you care, you need to communicate with the player, try to understand and have empathy with the situation. He’s a very young guy so he needs help and support. I’m there for him.
Does that mean a ready-made, tried and tested player who would cost a great deal more money? I’m not disputing what he says. But I’m sceptical about who Celtic can sign in any position that is an upgrade and who’s not going to cost a lot of money.
I have regular dialogue with players but we obviously have to wait and see as well because some players may want to go out but, if we don’t get the players in that we need, then I have to ensure the squad is as strong as it possibly can be…
We’ll hopefully have some of the injured players back and maybe one or two in the door. Then we push on for the second half of the season.
So for me it’s normal. If I listened to media and press then we would be in constant crisis mode and constant fear of Rangers. But it’s the fifth manager now.
While most fingers of blame would be pointed at the board of directors, Rodgers could do with getting a grip on the club’s recruitment. It’s time to show why he earns the big bucks.
According to the manager he delivered the angriest team talk of his career at half time away to St Johnstone, following the Hearts home defeat Rodgers admitted that the result hadn’t surprised him.
Chris Sutton has articulated many of the concerns of Celtic supporters over what has been an underwhelming start to the season, as the halfway point and winter break approaches.
Initially the majority of fans seemed opposed to the return of Brendan Rodgers but much of the hostility made…
Hartson’s second point, that players aren’t giving their all is probably more concerning but again it is something that falls under the remit of a manager.
Rodgers bought into it fully, in June he drooled over the fantastic work of Mark Lawwell in recruitment ahead of seven signings that have contributed even less than some of Daddy’s biggest duds like Vakoun Bayo, Youssuf Mulumo, Boli Bolingoli, Ismaila Soro, Patryk Klimala, Albian Ajeti and Vasilis Barkas.