Rodgers is still making quality demands and board have to deliver
One year into his second stint, it’s fair to say a great deal has changed for Brendan Rodgers.
With another league title and a Scottish Cup to add to the collection he had previously put together in Glasgow’s East End, Rodgers is in a very different position to the one he stepped into this time 12 months ago, when he still wasn’t sure if he was really wanted. There’s no need now for tugging on forlocks and the seemingly endless apologies for going away in the first place. The real Brendan is back now. Back in control and back in command.
But, while the more things change, the more they remain the same. So, with a new campaign about to kick-off, Rodgers found himself back at his Lennoxtown HQ , dancing around the kind of questions which seem to come around almost every time the transfer market is open for business
Like, how can a club with so much money find spending it such a problem? Yes, Rodgers has added to last season’s squad with keepers Kasper Schmeichel and Viljami Sinisalo secured along with the return of Paolo Bernardo. But the numbers still don’t add up
With only four weeks of the window left to negotiate – and a league opener against Kilmarnock on Sunday – Rodgers has already stated his desire for two new strikers. That’s not all he has in mind either. But Rodgers has been through this old dance routine before – sending messages out almost through morse code as he waits for the men above him to deliver the ‘quality’ he’s been crying out for ever since his return from Leicester.
“We want to improve – there’s absolutely no doubt – but I’m not going to get caught up in the whole negative, toxic energy around signings and everything else,” was how he put it yesterday which did catch the room by surprise.
But with the tools that we have at this moment in time, the players are working very, very well and I would expect us to add to that and be stronger by the time the window closes.”
A little later Rodgers was asked if he has a figure inside his own head in terms of how many new arrivals he needs for the campaign ahead. He replied: “I do in my own mind but not openly. You guys know the score. if I give you a number then we get held against that. So I know internally what I want in my own mind to help us but we can only really assess the window once it’s done.
“Our duty is for the supporters, to give them the best team that we possibly can because they deserve that for the support they give the club, the money they spend at this club. So we as a football club have to give them the best team that we possibly can.
“But sometimes that isn’t always straight away. Sometimes you have to wait that little bit, as frustrating as that can be for supporters, for managers, for coaches, and also for the players. They want the competition, they want the fresh faces in order to improve.
“But as long as by the 31st of August we have improved our team and our squad, then we’ll all be really happy and we can move on.”
It all does feel a little bit like an implied threat. But delivered from behind a butter-wouldn’t-melt smile. Rodgers is unlikely to be fobbed off with excuses now that he’s well and truly through the stage of having to say sorry just for being here.
With a first crack at at the expanded Champions League to come – and domestic dominance to protect – Rodgers quite clearly means business. While he accepts that deals can take longer than he would like them to, he fully expects that they are done.
He added: “But whilst the work is going on to improve the squad and give us those sort of guys that can make the difference for us, we’ll work with the players that we have.”
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