Celtic have been urged to sign a new defender by pundit Michael Stewart.
General view of Celtic Park
Pundit Michael Stewart has told BBC Sport’s Sportscene that centre back is the one area Brendan Rodgers must strengthen at Celtic this summer.
The Bhoys continued their unbeaten league season on Saturday afternoon, as they beat Kilmarnock 3-1 at Celtic Park thanks to goals from Stuart Armstrong, Scott Sinclair and James Forrest.
With the title already wrapped up having dropped just six points all season, Celtic have enjoyed a superb season – and manager Brendan Rodgers is a major reason for that.
The 44-year-old, who was brought in to replace Ronny Deila at the end of last season, has worked wonders with Celtic, and he has now signed a new four-year contract with the club having previously been on a one-year rolling deal.
Many now expect Rodgers to go and splash the cash this summer in an attempt to reach the Champions League group stage again, and one pundit has told him exactly where to strengthen.
Michael Stewart has told BBC Sport’s Sportscene that Rodgers must go out and sign another centre back this summer, as his current options aren’t quite up to the standard of the rest of the Celtic starting line-up.
Celtic’s Erik Sviatchenko
“I think centre half, for me, is the area of the park that Brendan Rodgers will look at and think is the first port of call to strengthen, to move the team to the next stage,” said Stewart. “At times, playing in Europe against top teams, you get stretched and you need your defenders to defend one-on-one against top players, and I’m still not convinced that the centre halves they’ve got are at the same level as the rest of the team,” he added.
Kolo Toure is out of contract this summer, whilst Dedryck Boyata and Jozo Simunovic have both featured more regularly than they did under Ronny Deila, but signing another centre back could frustrate Erik Sviatchenko.
Sviatchenko told BT in his native Denmark that he is unhappy with his lack of recent playing time, and adding to the defensive ranks would only leave even more frustrated – and the Bhoys will have to weigh up whether to stick with their current options and start Sviatchenko again, or bring somebody in and risk losing the Dane this summer.
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