This season has been a strange one, pre-season in Japan he looked better than ever but an indifferent 45 minutes at home to Athletic Bilbao at the time of transfer speculation seemed to carry consequences.
Back in August, before losing to Kilmarnock in the League Cup Rodgers explained that his role was to coach and develop the players supplied by the club. On his return he had highlighted the great work by Lawwell Mini, one of the factors that made him decide on another stint…
All eyes are on Lawwell Mini to see if he can buck the trend and deliver players capable of going into the team and improving things rather than bloating the wage bill.
Selling Jota and Carl Starfelt at the same time as Aaron Mooy retired has trimmed quality from the squad. Injuries to Reo Hatate, Liel Abada and Daizen Maeda has left Rodgers with just four or five reliable performers forced into carrying others that are miles short of the standard required.
James Forrest, a scorer in 2019 against Lazio, wasn’t in the squad for Saturday’s draw with Motherwell but Rodgers confirmed that the winger will play tomorrow night.
Strangely, or maybe not there wasn’t a single question about the January war-chest, the exciting signings that the Belgian has identified to add to the squad, to put his stamp on things.
About 75 minutes was allocated yesterday with the set up designed to ensure that the odds are stacked in favour of those on the podium who are generally being criticised, something that they aren’t accustomed to.
A focussed approach to recruitment is required- the big issue is whether Lawwell Junior knows of players over the age of 23 that can improve the Celtic team, over three transfer windows his only success so far is Alistair Johnston with half a dozen or more failing miserably.
Having been lured to Celtic over the last 18 months players won’t be accepting transfers and pay cuts just because of a change in circumstances at their employer. The wishes of the manager will be very difficult to execute.
Since Lawwell took charge of recruitment only Alistair Johnston has arrived to go straight into the Starting XI with the January transfer window critical to improve on the quality available to Rodgers.