The Hoops kick off their title defence this weekend against St Mirren but have endured a frustrating window so far
10:47, 30 Jul 2025Updated 12:29, 30 Jul 2025
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers
Brendan Rodgers hopes Celtic will have another new face through the door this week.
The Hoops have had three bids kicked out by Go Ahead Eagles for £6million-rated midfielder Jakob Breum.
Celts are also locked in talks with Manchester City over a loan deal for promising defender Jahmai Simpson-Pusey.
And with the title defence kicking off this weekend, Rodgers hinted that a new signing is imminent.
He told Sky Sports: “Yeah, well, we hope this week there might be some news on that.
“Coaches and the transfer market don’t move at the same pace. A coach always wants a player in immediately, but the transfer market doesn’t always work like that.
“There’s a lot that goes into it – but it’s also the reason for pre-season. You want your team together as quickly as you can so you can get some good work in, get the togetherness, get the spirit, everything formed.
“But, of course, we know that traditionally it can be a challenge. By the end of the window, hopefully that will be the case. In the meantime, we’re working very, very hard.
“We’re excited by what’s here at the moment and looking forward to the weekend.”
Kieran Tierney and Benji Nygren are among the six new Bhoys who have arrived at Parkhead over the summer.
But the champions have offloaded a dozen players and banked £17million from Nicolas Kuhn’s sale to Como.
Jakob Breum in action
He said: “Listen, as I said, a coach will always want the players in. I think it’s arithmetic. It’s purely counting.
“We’ve lost players and we want to replace those players with quality. So it’s not an opinion, it’s where it’s at.
“We’ve lost key players and we want to replace those as quickly as we can in order to keep developing.
“I’m very hopeful that we can do that.”
Rodgers is desperately searching for more firepower having also lost Kyogo in January without replacing the Japanese goal machine.
He said: “For us it’s tweaks because obviously last year we scored the most amount of goals in over 50-odd years of any Celtic team.
“So that tells you there’s a lot really good with the team. Clearly you want to improve each season.
“But I think the attacking department will always be the strength of my team.
“So that’s something that we want to always improve on.
“Whether that’s through tactical ideas or players, it’s an area that we always want to improve.”
Celtic will discover who stands between them and the Champions League league phase when the playoff draw is made on Monday.
Fans have demanded the Parkhead board loosen the purse strings but Rodgers is refusing to hit the panic button.
He said: “For me the focus is very much on what’s here. We know we have work to do and I’m hopeful that we can get that done by the end of the window.
“But in the meantime, the players have worked fantastically over the course of this pre-season.
“It’s been nice with the guys are coming in. They’ve added that quality to the group.
“We’ve got some younger players coming in, like young Callum Osmand, who’s a young player for the future. It was a great opportunity for us to take him from Fulham, which was great.
“We still have work to do in the market, but I’m really excited. The focus is really on the players that are here, of course, and they’ve been working very, very well.
“Hopefully by the end of the month, as I said, we’ll be a stronger squad for the end of the transfer window.”
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