'When we lose players'

Brendan Rodgers has made one thing crystal clear about how Celtic should approach transfer windows in the future.

The Hoops knew for months and months that they would have to navigate their way past a Champions League play-off round to reach the league phase this season.

However, they failed to replace the likes of Kyogo Furuhashi, Nicolas Kuhn and Jota in time for the Kairat Almaty double header.

Kairat won on penalties to dump Celtic into the Europa League, where they will face the likes of AS Roma and Feyenoord in the league phase.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers arrives before the game against Ajax, Celtic chairman Dermot Desmond arrives before the St Mirren game Credit: Ian MacNicol/Getty Images

Rodgers says Celtic must improve on ‘timing’ of signings

Brendan Rodgers has been desperate for new recruits, but the Celtic board did not deliver the quality required to bolster the squad before the play-off.

It must be stressed that Rodgers still had the players at his disposal to beat Kairat over two legs. But at his press conference on Friday before the Glasgow derby, he made one thing clear.

Rodgers says Celtic must now look at when new players are signed so that they give themselves the best chance of qualifying for tournaments such as the Champions League.

He said: “As a football club, it’s not about investment either, because this club will invest. The club’s super well run, the investment is there, but we need to look at the timing of the investment.

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“And does that go back to recruitment, does it go back to identification? All these different facets, but what I do know is we have to be better in it.

“This is a period of time, so it’s not about investment, the club will invest. We’ll see over the next few days, I’m pretty sure we’ll invest.

“But we want to get the timing of investment important, just to give us every single chance to be the best version of Celtic that we can be.”

Rodgers praises Dermot Desmond and the Celtic board

Despite lamenting the club’s transfer strategy this summer, Rodgers did place on record his full backing for the Celtic hierarchy.

He continued: “We’ve got a major owner in Dermot (Desmond) who’s a super intelligent guy, we’ve got a board of directors who bleed for the club. They want the club to do well, so everyone here is connected.

“I hear all these stories of disconnection, and it can’t be further from the truth. Every single guy from me, the board, Dermot, we love Celtic, but we want Celtic to be the very, very best.

“There’s a business model that you see works so well. I want to try and ensure the football model works equally as well, so it’s fluent and agile, we keep ahead of the game.

“So when we lose players, we’re not in this cycle of waiting, waiting, waiting, standing still, and then missing out on competitions that we want to be in. So that’s the idea hopefully over the coming months.”

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