Brendan Rodgers thinks Celtic should have followed Liverpool’s transfer approach

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Celtic crashed out of the Champions League on Tuesday night.

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers clearly isn’t happy with his team’s transfer business – and told the Daily Star that he thinks the club should have backed him like Liverpool have with Jurgen Klopp.

The Bhoys could only manage a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their qualifying tie with AEK Athens last week, despite the Greek champions being down to 10 men, and they followed that up with a 1-0 defeat at Hearts on Saturday.

Celtic needed a response away at AEK on Tuesday night, but Rodrigo Galo put the hosts in front, and Marko Livaja made it 2-0 on the night for AEK, meaning Celtic needed two goals to go through on away goals.

Scott Sinclair pulled one back for Celtic, but they couldn’t find the second goal, and the Bhoys have now crashed out of the Champions League in a shock early exit for Brendan Rodgers’ side.

After reaching the group stage twice under Rodgers, Celtic won’t be back at Europe’s top table this season, and the attention has turned to the club’s poor transfer business this summer.

Celtic did break their club record to sign loanee Odsonne Edouard permanently, but Scott Bain and Emilio Izaguirre are the only other additions, with Celtic seemingly standing still – and there are early fears that Rangers are closing in under Steven Gerrard.

Now, Rodgers has told the Daily Star that he thinks Celtic must improve, and should have been looking to spend on new signings to keep pushing forward, much like Liverpool have done since reaching the Champions League final.

“I’ve said what I wanted to say about us needing to improve,” said Rodgers. “You only need to look at Liverpool who got to the Champions League final and then went out and made some great signings and strengthened the squad. I’ve always said, we needed to strengthen no matter how good we’ve been in the last couple of years. So that’s something that we can hopefully do, but it’s no good for us now,” he added.

Having been backed with signings like Alisson and Fabinho this summer, Rodgers is understandably envious of his Liverpool successor Jurgen Klopp, and whilst he isn’t looking for more than £100million of investment, he does want to be given the chance to boost his squad – and Celtic so far aren’t delivering.