Brendan Rodgers sets out how Celtic will approach January transfer window - quality signings, more outs, enough development players

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has suggested pruning an oversized squad could be the major feature of the club’s January transfer business - though hasn’t ruled out “quality signings”.

Celtic nanager Brendan Rodgers has addressed the reasons that the club's playing squad has become bloated, and how he will set about rectifying the situation. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

The Scottish champions have no fewer than 32 senior players in their ranks currently. The Irishman believes that must be pared down to a more manageable number as many are set to feature little, or not at all, this season. He refuses, though, to see the winter window as an awkward period for acquisitions - how it tends to be viewed - in his bid to bolster his starting choices.

“It is all on availability,” the Celtic manager said. “I’ve done business in January before that has been really, really good. It is just the availability really. There is a market out there to bring in good players but it’s just getting the right ones. Listen, we have enough - what I would say - development players. I think it is clear. And I love that, what I have done all my life is work with those. But you certainly need ones that can come in of genuine quality and we hope we can bring them in across the coming windows.

“It is more quality than quantity, for me [come January]. I think there will be more out than coming in. There will be players who will have been here for six months and won’t have played. It is no fault of them. The squad is obviously a lot bigger than I would want. So there will be more players who will look to go out and get game time. It is not ideal. I think there were younger players that were going to come in and see how they develop. I know for sure it was the case there were some guys thinking of leaving before I came in. Then obviously a new manager comes in and there can be a change of heart. They don’t leave, they stay, and that is how your squad ends up where it is at. So it is that mix between players coming in to develop and ones that decided to stay and not move on. But I think over the course of the next couple of windows we’ll get the squad down to a workable group.”