Saturday Round-Up: Rodgers - I Want To Bring Patrick Roberts Back To Celtic

THE BIG STORY: Brendan Rodgers has revealed that if possible, he would like to bring Patrick Roberts back to Celtic after his highly successful loan spell here. The sticking points seem to be if Manchester City want to keep the player and if Roberts wants to come back and not money, as Rodgers stated that Celtic can afford to sign him, but any move is likely to take place later in the transfer window. Bringing Roberts back, especially on a permanent deal, would give the club a huge boost but it seems unlikely to happen in my opinion, I fancy that the player would rather have a go with a club down south. We’ll keep you updated if any more news develops on this story.

OTHER NEWS: Celtic, backed by a huge travelling support, face Sunderland today at the Stadium of Light for the right to win the Dafabet Cup, and I spoke to SB Nation’s Sunderland site Roker Report to preview the game, you can read that here and we’ll keep you posted on the game.

Somewhat inevitably, Celtic have been fined £20,616 by UEFA for having ‘blocked stairways’ and an ‘illicit banner’ during our match against Linfield at Celtic Park. So no stand closure then. Hooray!

ON THIS DAY: In 1999, Celtic signed Stiliyan Petrov from CSKA Sofia for £2 million. After a poor first season under John Barnes, Stan thrived under the management of Martin O’Neill then Gordon Strachan, scoring goals and winning a plethora of trophies. He’s probably the best box to box midfielder Celtic have had over the past 25 years.

Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images