CELTIC manager Brendan Rodgers wants to sign two strikers in January to cope with the absence of Leigh Griffiths.
The club's top scorer is out of football for an unspecified period as he deals with "multiple personal problems" which leaves Celtic with only Odsonne Edouard as a senior centre-forward.
Rodgers has been promised significant funds to spend next month and with the previous two transfer windows disappointing for the club, the manager said that can't be allowed to happen again.
"There’s no doubt that we might need two because we wanted three strikers," he said. "We know we can’t go through the number of games we have and at the intensity at which we play with the same striker. We will definitely look at that. It’s always been a focus but this narrows our focus.
"It’s about availability. January is a very hard window in which to get players in. But we will definitely have to reinforce."
Rodgers admitted that he would consider a loan deal but would prefer getting in someone on a permanent basis as he is stilling missing Moussa Dembele who left for Lyon in August.
"We have to look at whatever is available really," he said. "It’s hard because if a team have four strikers and they play with a front two they probably don’t want to lose any of them in case they get an injury and are down to three so it’s just going to be about availability."
Rodgers paid tribute to troubled Griffiths who scored the first goal of the Europa League campaign when he came off the bench to grab a late winner against Rosenborg in Glasgow.
"Leigh has played his part, absolutely. He set us on the road," he said. "All the goals were important. All the victories added to the nine points.
"Rosenborg showed that they are a good side too going to Leipzig and getting the point there. It was a tough group with two Champions League teams in Leipzig and Salzburg."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel