The Hoops are going places under Rodgers but the board needs to match the manager’s ambition.
After he pulled off one of the coups of the campaign by bringing Moussa Dembele to Glasgow for pocket change, Celtic are unsurprisingly ready to back Brendan Rodgers in the January transfer window.
“I had a meal with [billionaire owner] Dermot Desmond in London for three hours or so, talking about how we can improve and keep moving the club forward,” Rodgers said earlier this month in quotes reported by the Daily Mail. “We’re content, but want to keep pushing.”
And, with Celtic once again attempting to unearth diamonds in the rough, out of the eyeline of the European game’s affluent magpies, where better place to visit than Portugal and, in particular, Benfica?
Something of a feeder division for the continent’s bigger sides, transferring from the Liga Nos to the Scottish Premiership seems something of a sidewards step but, with Celtic aiming to progress on the European front, ambition in the market is required.
With their scouts returning from a weekend trip to watch Benfica in action against Estoril, per the Daily Record, who could Brendan Rodgers’ be running the rule over in January?
Lubomir Fejsa
Scott Brown has never been content to let someone else have the final say. And, after the critics condemned him to the scrapyard, the long-serving skipper has responded emphatically with his finest season in recent memory.
Yet, at 31, time is not exactly on his side, with Rodgers’ forced to compensate for Brown’s ageing limbs by deploying the energetic Stuart Armstrong alongside him.
Therefore, it’s not inconceivable that the Northern Irishman may consider adding an alternative option to his ranks, something which could come in handy if Celtic want to balance both domestic and European competition.
Fejsa may only be three years Brown’s junior but his intelligent passing and sharp tackling means he’s cut from the same cloth while his European experience could come in quite useful. He’s hardly the most valuable of Benfica’s prized assets, meaning a decent offer could reap rewards.
Andre Almeida
As Emilio Izaguirre was hauled off inside half an hour in Celtic’s eventual comeback win against Motherwell last month, it seemed to mark the beginning of the end to the Honduran’s long reign on the left. Teenage full-back Kieran Tierney has already replaced him in the starting XI with rumours of a potential exit to the MLS abounding in recent months despite reports of an impending new deal.
However, nothing has been signed yet and Rodgers could yet be swayed by the possibility of an upgrade in the January sales. In Portugal international Andre Almeida, the Northern Irishman would gain a composed, ball playing full-back capable of filling in on either flank.
The 26-year-old would also surely prove a welcome addition on the right with Christian Gamboa yet to convince.
Ederson
Ousting Brazilian veteran, Champions League winner and, erm, former QPR goalkeeper Julio Cesar in the starting XI, Ederson’s stock could hardly be higher at the moment. A stand-out performance against Bayern Munich in the Champions League brought him to attention and, if you believe the reports, both Manchester City and Barcelona are now sharing an interest.
And that alone tells you a lot about Ederson; he is, after all, your typical ball-playing goalkeeper, something that will certainly have caught the eye of Brendan Rodgers, who brought former Swansea number one Dorus De Vries to Celtic Park in the summer in order to fulfil his pass-out philosophy.
Ederson, however, is a much safer pair of hands than the Dutchman while a switch to Celtic would certainly offer something Barcelona and Manchester City probably couldn’t; first team football.
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