The draw with Kairat Almaty has put the £40million Champions League prize pot in the balance
Brendan Rodgers on the Celtic Park touchline
Brendan Rodgers admits Celtic’s Champions League hopes are in the balance because the under-fire Parkhead board failed to heed his warnings.
Blunt Hoops are facing the nightmare scenario of having to win in Kazakhstan on Tuesday after drawing a blank against stubborn Kairat Almaty.
Celtic let rip at chief exec Michael Nicolson and chairman Peter Lawwell and chanted ‘Sack the Board’ after failure to land quality replacements for Kyogo, Nicolas Kuhn and injured Jota over the summer.
Rodgers is determined to come through in the return leg but he admitted he feared the club’s shambolic transfer window could come back to bite them.
He said: “I think it was pretty clear. I think you don’t need to look at the future too far.
“You know these games are tough games and you know that you want to get your best players in and have players in as quick as you can to tackle these sorts of situations.
“It is what it is. I just have to accept where it’s at.
“I think that we need to improve the squad. There was clarity around that for a long time.
“We see that. I think supporters see that. We need to improve.
“This is a performance club. This is a club that’s to perform. And that starts on the field.
“And you do that with getting the very best players you possibly can to allow you to perform.
“It’s getting performance on the pitch, the style and the type of football excites supporters.
“That’s what this club is used to. Hopefully between now and the end of the window, we can get that. And then that will support us going through the rest of the season.”
Hoops fans aimed their anger at the directors box and Rodgers said: “What I do know is, over many years, ‘sack the board’ usually means ‘sack the manager’.
“It’s normally the manager that goes when that starts to be sung.
“I can only really look at the players we have here, and the performance. We’ve known for a long time what we’ve needed as a squad, so I don’t want to go into that.”
Rodgers has been forced to front up over transfer failure but the board have remained silent.
But he said: ”I accept the responsibility as the manager of the club. I can’t tell you anything which I would like to, but there’s only so many ways I can dress up that we haven’t got any players in.
“But I accept responsibility to stand here and tell you where we’re at. The privilege is mine to be here. If it’s my role to do that, then of course I will do that.”
Rodgers is convinced Celts can still reach the group stages despite the dismal first leg.
He said: “We’re disappointed with the result and first-half performance. We didn’t start with the intent and mentality we wanted to. We were quite passive.
“The second half was better, we started well but couldn’t find the breakthrough in the final third of the pitch.
“At the end of the game, we have to shuffle things about to try and make it work.
“But the players’ endeavour in the second half was really good. But at this level, it’s more than that.
Brendan Rodgers cuts a frustrated figure on the touchline
“Of course, you want to take the advantage. I’ve been here before, having drawn 0-0 in a qualification game – against Rosenborg, a very good team. We went there to qualify and we did, played very well and won.
“There’s no doubt we can go there and win. It’s still very much in the balance.”
Alistair Johnston was carried off with a hamstring injury and misfiring striker Adam Idah was hooked at half-time.
Rodgers said: “There’s no rocket science in it. It’s all hard work. It’s all preparation.
“That will obviously lead to confidence, and then you’ll obviously succeed as a player from that. I didn’t quite go for him in the first half. I wanted a little bit more activity in and around the box, because I felt we could get up there. “Adam’s a good boy. He’s an honest boy. He hasn’t quite started how he would have liked.
“But in games like these here, I can’t afford to wait. And that’s why I made the change at half time.”
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