BRENDAN RODGERS, the Celtic manager, is confident of signing a centre-half over the next 48 hours which would ensure they are eligible to play in next week’s Champions League qualifiers providing his team get past Lincoln Red Imps.
The Northern Irishman insisted he would not sign any player just for the sake of it, preferring to wait for the right man to become available, but did concede his team were in dire need of at least one more central defender ahead of the next round of fixtures.
READ MORE: Celtic legends were quite right to have a go at us, admits Leigh Griffiths
That means bringing in someone before Thursday's deadline or they will not be able to feature for Celtic in Europe until the Champions League play-offs in August
Should Celtic overcome the 1-0 deficit inflicted on them by their opponents from Gibraltar in Glasgow, they then face either Astana of Kazakhstan or Lithuanian outfit Zalgris. Rodgers would prefer not to have to travel to the away leg on Tuesday or Wednesday without having added to his lopsided squad.
Striker Moussa Dembele, a £500,000 purchase from Fulham, is the only business done by the club so far and Rodgers is determined to spend some more of his £10m budget this week.
READ MORE: Celtic legends were quite right to have a go at us, admits Leigh Griffiths
Kolo Toure and Shane Duffy remains possibilities and when asked about the situation with his lack of centre-halves, Rodgers admitted: “It’s a big concern but that’s what we have.
“Ideally, we would want to try and at least have one more in by the deadline, all being well. I want it now – but it doesn’t always work out that way.
“Is it realistic? I would hope so. It won’t be the fault of this club if not. The club are looking to do everything they can to support my needs and what I want.”
Rodgers has a lot to do in a relatively short period of time. He will be afforded a lot of slack by the supporters; however, they want to see big changes within a first-team squad that fell short in Europe and both domestic cup competition last season.
READ MORE: Celtic legends were quite right to have a go at us, admits Leigh Griffiths
“We inherited a huge squad and we know we need to trim it,” said the Celtic manager. “At the same time, we have to add quality and that’s the key. The market is slow due to the types of players I want to bring in.
“It feels as though we have been back ages, whereas lots of teams are just coming back in. It’s taking a bit of time. Everything is now. The world is now. It’s modern life.
“You can’t go into a hospital and wait now, can you? Everything is instant, everything is available to know, yet for some things in life you have to wait. It cannot be instant.
“I don’t want any player, I want the right player who can give us quality. I will never stockpile players for the sake of it because we have a good bunch here anyway and are current champions. For us to take a step forward, we need to cut numbers and then I need to add a little bit more to it.”
Rodgers's problem is not a lack of interest from players but rather it is bringing in the right sort at a time of the transfer window when not a lot of business gets done.
“At clubs like Celtic, it’s not about getting them in, it’s about keeping them out,” he said. “There are enough people wanting to come, wanting the calls we have had. But it’s always about the right availability and affordability, and it’s also about timing.”
Rodgers did not want to look too far ahead of where his side may find themselves next week, that’s if something earth shattering doesn’t have against Lincoln Red Imps, but the possibility of playing Astana, who are favourites themselves to reach the third qualifying round, has not gone un-noticed.
"Apart from the six-hour flight, five-hour time difference and the 35 degree heat on an unwatered plastic pitch, it’s not a bad trip,” said Rodgers who once again stressed how difficult these early rounds can be.
He said: “Do people understand how tough these qualifying games are? No, clearly not. I always felt when you were looking at it from down south, you were just starting your pre-season and, yet, everything seemed to ride at this time for Scottish teams.
“You’d be sat worrying about your second training session for the afternoon and teams were playing qualifiers. But that’s the way it is. It is difficult, but we accept it as part of life here. We want to be there, so we have to maximise what we can do to get in there.”
Jozo Simunovic and Dedryck Boyata have not yet began pre-season training and therefore both are looking at a month before they could realistically be considering for the first-team.
Mikael Lustig may well fill in at centre-half, Nir Bitton and Stefan Johansen will miss out, for a game where before the match the Ladbrokes Premiership flag for last season’s title win.
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