(The Guardian) Celtic: Following his team’s surprise defeat at the hands of the Scottish Premiership’s bottom club St Johnstone, Brendan Rodgers has said Celtic either need to freshen up their squad during the summer or add a new voice to their the dugout if they are to guard against complacency. The Celtic manager quickly stressed his focus would be adding to the squad in the summer transfer market as he anticipates a natural turnover.
Rodgers admitted he was furious after Sunday’s defeat by bottom club St Johnstone, which ruled out the possibility of Celtic winning the title at home to Kilmarnock tomorrow. After losing just twice in the whole of 2024 in all competitions - to Rangers and Borussia Dortmund - Celtic have suffered six defeats so far this year.
“It’s all about improvement,” he said. “I think naturally what you have at our club, there is a natural slide of players that move out and come in every three or four years. So I think naturally that will happen. It’s the nature of our model here. But it’s also the nature of players being here and maybe either looking to move on or wanting to come away from the pressure that’s here. Because three or four years of it, it’s a lot of pressure.
“We always have to be ready to replace any players that go but obviously important for us is improvement. We always want to improve the team, improve the hunger in the team. That’s always key because one of the ways to succeed and guard across what I’ve been talking about, is you need the freshness.
“It’s either that or the manager goes. It’s as simple as that. There’s no rocket science in it. You cannot be at a club for a long period of time with the same group of players. And likewise, the same group of players need a different voice maybe. But at this moment, it will be about improving the squad. I think change is needed. That freshness, that new energy coming into your squad that alleviates any of that sort of complacency. So we will bring players in to challenge the squad and the team for the summer. That’s natural at any team. However this team does at the end of the season, we want to improve it. The team needs the competition.”
Rodgers admitted he was furious after Sunday’s defeat by bottom club St Johnstone, which ruled out the possibility of Celtic winning the title at home to Kilmarnock tomorrow. After losing just twice in the whole of 2024 in all competitions - to Rangers and Borussia Dortmund - Celtic have suffered six defeats so far this year.
“It’s all about improvement,” he said. “I think naturally what you have at our club, there is a natural slide of players that move out and come in every three or four years. So I think naturally that will happen. It’s the nature of our model here. But it’s also the nature of players being here and maybe either looking to move on or wanting to come away from the pressure that’s here. Because three or four years of it, it’s a lot of pressure.
“We always have to be ready to replace any players that go but obviously important for us is improvement. We always want to improve the team, improve the hunger in the team. That’s always key because one of the ways to succeed and guard across what I’ve been talking about, is you need the freshness.
“It’s either that or the manager goes. It’s as simple as that. There’s no rocket science in it. You cannot be at a club for a long period of time with the same group of players. And likewise, the same group of players need a different voice maybe. But at this moment, it will be about improving the squad. I think change is needed. That freshness, that new energy coming into your squad that alleviates any of that sort of complacency. So we will bring players in to challenge the squad and the team for the summer. That’s natural at any team. However this team does at the end of the season, we want to improve it. The team needs the competition.”
