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No need to panic – Rodgers confirms some Celtic positions still need strengthened this month

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Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has admitted that the Hoops still need to strengthen in a number of key positions this January, but has ruled out any arrival of ‘marquee signings’.

Celtic have already added Timothy Weah, Oliver Burke and Vakoun Issouf Bayo to Rodgers’ first-team squad, delighting supporters who have been looking for more in the final third this season.

With Andrew Gutman reportedly on the brink of signing for the club too, the club have wasted no time in bolstering starting eleven options ahead of a closely fought title race.

The manager though isn’t wholly content with what he has.

Asked whether more signings needed to be made, the Hoops boss told The Daily Mail:

Ideally. I think there are still positions where we would like to get folk in. But we needed to improve the squad, there was no doubt about that. The second part of the season is about bringing in more offensive threats and giving us more options. In the first part of the season you could see that we were not ideal, having to play players out of position and what not.

However, the manager believes ‘marquee signings’ are not the way to go, telling the paper:

I don’t think that’s how Celtic works. The model of the club is value and maximising that value and talent and development and seeing it grow at the club.

The young players that have come in fit that model.

My job was to develop that, increase that talent within and hopefully they can come in and do a great job for Celtic. Whether they are loan signings or a permanent signing.

Predictably, some have latched onto these comments as evidence we will not do the business we need to do before the end of the transfer window, but Rodgers is just repeating what Celtic’s transfer strategy has been for a number of years now.

The definition of ‘marquee signing’ in Rodgers’ mind is probably pretty grand.

The right-back position is a clear priority given the number of players we have been linked with there since the summer, so hopefully the club can get the job done there, along with signing a centre-back and we can move towards a successful end of the season.

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