Brendan Rodgers in one of his press conferences after his move to Leicester City said (Daily Record) that he’s left Celtic in a good place. Now without giving much of a thought, one would say Rodgers is right as he delivered two trebles and took them almost on the verge of a third. The timing of departure was wrong, but the Hoops must be in a good place as they are motoring towards their third treble in a row.
However, the upcoming summer transfer window is going to be a massive one for the club, and there are as many as 11 players that could depart the club. The Hoops need to go through a major rebuilding phase, and a poor summer transfer window can cost them dearly.
Coming back to the 11 players who are likely to leave, four players are on loan deal. The likes of Filip Benkovic, Jeremy Toljan, Oliver Burke, and Timothy Weah all are set to depart in the summer. We are not yet sure whether Celtic would be able to sign any of them permanently. Benkovic and Weah are not going to be available for sale as their parent clubs hold them in high regard.
Dorus De Vries, Emilio Izaguirre, Mikael Lustig and Cristian Gamboa are currently in the final few months of their contract. We don’t expect the Hoops to hand out a major deal to any of the lot from here. Maybe they could look to keep hold of Lustig for a year or two, but the other three have run their course.
Surprisingly we also need to add Scott Sinclair’s name to this list of players who could be out of contract in the summer. The winger has enjoyed an impressive goal haul this season. The Hoops have an option to extend the English winger’s contract by another year, but that too hasn’t been triggered yet. Therefore we are not yet sure how Celtic are going to play this.
Scott Allan has agreed to join Hibernian on a pre-contract deal in the summer and the fact that he hasn’t played any part this season suggests that losing him wouldn’t be a big problem for the club.
Finally, Dedryck Boyata is the final name set to depart the club in the summer as his contract is going to expire. We believe Celtic’s main task would be to replace the four on loan players whose deals are expiring and Boyata. Therefore a lot of work needs to be done by the club in the upcoming summer. A successful window can be a stepping stone towards further domination of Scottish football by Celtic. Oh, and btw, Rodgers lied to you Celtic fans.
