Brendan Rodgers On New Signings, Bitton, Boyata And The Champions League

Brendan Rodgers spoke to the press ahead of tomorrow’s game against St Johnstone - we’ll have a preview of the game on the site later, and he had some notable things to say. On new signing Rivaldo Coetzee, he revealed that the player will have his medical over the weekend then will be at Celtic after the international break. Regarding any other signings, Celtic are looking to ‘add and improve the squad’. Get set for a hectic few days of transfer rumours then.

The manager thought that criticism of Nir Bitton’s performance against Astana was ‘incredible’, he ‘admires’ the player for playing despite having a foot injury and that we might not have qualified for the Champions League without him. Meanwhile Dedryck Boyata, who has just returned to first team training, is still ‘a few weeks away’ from being back to full fitness.

Rodgers also discussed the Champions League draw, describing the games as ‘very exciting and glamorous’ that the players and club ‘deserve’. He also described qualifying for the Group Stages as being like ‘winning a trophy’, as it is such a difficult task. Well I’m not sure I would have put it like that, but I understand what he means.