The Hoops boss is chasing targets to strengthen his first team and knows the clock is ticking towards the start of the new Premiership<\/a> season.<\/p>\n But Rodgers<\/a> also shot down suggestions of a difference between club signings and his own top targets.<\/p>\n The Irishman described new recruits Hayato Inamura and Shin Yamada<\/a> as part of the club\u2019s long term strategy, along with youngster Callum Osmand.<\/p>\n But Rodgers is adamant he has the full final say over any players coming in while underlining his desire to land first-team-ready stars.<\/p>\n He said: “It\u2019s pretty straightforward. There will be players within our recruitment team that are not just for now but for the future.<\/p>\n \u201cClearly, I will look at those players and assess, and see if those players can come in and play. Then there will be other players we specifically need. It\u2019s still very much joined up.<\/p>\n \u201cI suppose it\u2019s more around whether the players are for now or later. People know the model over a number of years. There are players who come in who are maybe not expected to hit the ground running, but some of them do.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what I need to assess, those guys coming in. But I also need to win now, and we need to get those players in. Either way, I will be responsible for that.<\/p>\n \u201cClub signings, with the greatest respect, I don\u2019t care where they come (from), I just need good players in the building who can help us win today, tomorrow and the next week.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always developed players in my career, so I respect that side of it, but also the need for the present.\u201d<\/p>\n Rodgers can understand fans frustration with the Hoops desperately needing at least one winger and another striker ahead of the new campaign \u2013 and the Champions League qualifier on the horizon.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cI respect what the supporters are \u2013 I want players in tomorrow. But I understand the market and what you need to do to bring a player in.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not as easy as clicking your fingers. We all want them in at the start, absolutely, and none more so than the coach.<\/p>\n \u201cBut there is a middle and an end, and as long as you have them in by the end, it\u2019s such a long season, so I\u2019m very hopeful we\u2019ll do that.<\/p>\n \u201cI am, because there is a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes in terms of players.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, you look at our squad and you can see where there are needs for improvement. It\u2019s pretty clear.<\/p>\n \u201cThe market is difficult in terms of timings and everything else. On the same token, we are only 11 days away from the new season and we want to get players in as quickly as we can.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are looking to bring in a player that will improve us, the other club is looking to maximise their assets as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Celtic have a pile of cash in the bank after the \u00a317m sale of Nicholas Kuhn on top of impressive reserves.<\/p>\n But Rodgers is not demanding a bumper war chest as he defended last summer\u2019s \u00a326m trio of Arne Engels, Adam Idah and Auston Trusty.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cThere was a bit of focus around the players who came in last year and question marks around what they brought.<\/p>\n \u201cFor one, they didn\u2019t set the price. But, two, Celtic did as well as they\u2019ve done for a decade and those guys really helped us.<\/p>\n \u201cTrusty was outstanding in the Champions League. Engels, his running power, was really helpful for us, he\u2019s a young player who will get better.<\/p>\n \u201cIdah scored over 20 goals and still has improvements to make. It depends on perspective. I felt we needed physicality and power for the Champions League and that really helped us.<\/p>\n \u201cThose players have still more to develop.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether a player costs \u00a3250,000 or \u00a312m, I\u2019m not really concerned. I\u2019ve seen and worked with players who have cost more but others who have cost less but are much better players.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not really fixated on, \u2018I need \u00a310m, \u00a315m or whatever\u2019 \u2013 I just need quality players.\u201d<\/p>\n Rodgers\u2019 men will face Ajax in Como tonight but Hoops fans might need to wait to see Yamada in action, while Cameron Carter-Vickers and Alistair Johnston will get back on the pitch.<\/p>\n The boss said: \u201cI\u2019m not sure. Shin has obviously just come in. He\u2019s been with us for a few days and it\u2019s just assessing and we\u2019ll take it from there.\u201d<\/p>\n Tune in to Hotline Live<\/a> every Sunday to Thursday and have your say on the biggest issues in Scottish football and listen to Record Sport’s newest podcast, Game On<\/a>, every Friday for your sporting fix, all in bite-sized chunks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hoops boss is desperately seeking reinforcements as the clock ticks towards flag day next weekend 22:30, 23…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[8812,49,48,13881,13882,2096,9328,17229,561,1942,82,9327,5476],"class_list":["post-20388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-brendan-rodgers","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celtic-fc","tag-celtic-transfer-news","tag-facebook","tag-scottish-premiership","tag-scottish-professional-football-league","tag-soccer","tag-social-media","tag-sports","tag-transfer-talk","tag-twitter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Celtic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_Celtic-v-Newcastle-United-Pre-Season-Friendly.jpg\")
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"Shin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_Celtic-FC-Media-Access.jpg\")
Shin Yamada and Hayato Inamura have both arrived from Japan(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n