Brendan Rodgers ‘looking’ for Celtic signings in January after ‘concerning’ development – pundit
Brendan Rodgers “will be looking” to bring players into his Celtic squad this January to fill the void left by departures for the Asian Cup.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, former Rangers and Tottenham defender Alan Hutton claimed it is “concerning” for the boss to lose key players in mid-January on international duty.
Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda, Oh Hyeon-gyu, Yang Hyun-jun and Marco Tilio will all be absent for several games after the winter break for the competition that commences in Qatar on 12 January.
Rivals and fellow title contenders Rangers just have only Abdallah Sima departing for international duty with Senegal for the African Cup of Nations, but their leading goalscorer will be a huge miss for Philippe Clement.
Hutton was adamant that recruitment is set to occur in these players’ absence.
“Of course, it will be concerning for Rodgers,” he told Football Insider.
“The flip side of that is that Rangers won’t have as many leaving, but Abdallah Sima has been one of their top players.
“It’s a huge factor. Nobody wants to lose anybody through injury or for international duty at this stage of the season.
“Unfortunately, it’s a part of football. This always pops up every now and again, so Rodgers will have to deal with it.
“It’s a fair list and they’re big players in that squad so I think he will now be looking at and working on signings in January.
“Can he bring somebody in to fill those voids in the meantime until they come back?”
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