Celtic transfer window ‘not ideal’ concedes Rodgers

Scottish Premiership: Celtic v Dundee

Venue: Celtic Park, Glasgow Date: Wednesday, 5 February Time: 19: 45 GMT

Manager Brendan Rodgers won’t lay blame on Celtic before a club review because the January transfer window “wasn’t ideal.”

On deadline day, the Scottish Premiership leaders brought winger Jota back from Rennes, and forward Kyogo Furuhashi turned the tables on him.

“I said it myself, we wanted another striker, so we’re not hiding behind anything”, said Rodgers.

“And absolutely, the supporters will look and see that a top striker has gone out, a legendary striker.

” So I understand that. All I can do is have a positive impact on what we have now, look to teach, and work extremely hard to bring about a successful season for us.

With three goals in two games, Adam Idah has gone without scoring since late November, filling the void created by Kyogo’s departure.

Daizen Maeda can play through the middle, but Johnny Kenny, 21, has already been suspended for the Champions League play-off against Bayern Munich next week. Daizen Maeda is also eligible for the 21-year-old after returning from a loan deal with Shamrock Rovers.

” I don’t want to pin blame on anyone here, “added Rodgers”. I think as a collective, it wasn’t ideal how it ended for us. We have to, as a club now, go away and look at that, like we do in every window.

Rodgers was asked if it was a mistake to allow Furuhashi, who scored 85 goals in 165 appearances, to leave without a replacement in place.

“Some people will say that, but you don’t have the depth of knowledge that I have on the player and working with him, and going back to the summer”, he replied.

You can quickly say to yourself, “Well, you should really have someone in the door before you let him leave.” However, a circumstance indicated that wasn’t the case, and we had been trying to do that for a while.

“We make the best deal possible and move on if a player doesn’t want to be here.”

“I think we brought in some really good players. Could we have done better? Yeah, we could.

Scott Allan, a former Celtic midfielder, appears on BBC Radio Scotland.

Adam Idah will be aiming for prominence right away. They’ve got Johnny Kenny and Daniel Cummings, who they had offers for from West Ham.

It’ll be interesting to see what Brendan Rodgers does going forward because we know Daizen Maeda can play top and has done for Japan.