Celtic’s Thomas Rogne plays down impact of Nikica Jelavic’s Rangers exit

The Croatia striker, top scorer at Ibrox this season with 17 goals, signed for Everton on deadline day with Rangers manager Ally McCoist unable to replace him.

With Steven Naismith and Kyle Lafferty out injured, the champions are devoid of much of their potency while Celtic have found top form.

Celtic’s 14-game domestic winning run has taken them one point clear of their Old Firm rivals at the top of the table and with a game in hand.

However, defender Rogne, at the club’s Lennoxtown training ground to promote the Celtic lottery, claimed the loss of Jelavic has not necessarily dented the champions’ league title hopes.

“We know Rangers are a good team no matter what,” said the 21-year-old. “At the weekend they didn’t have Jelavic and they still won 4-0 [against Hibs] so Rangers are always going to be a good team and so are the other teams in the SPL.

“I don’t know what kind of figure he was at Rangers.

“Obviously he scored a lot of goals, he is a player you don’t want to lose, of course, but they probably have other players who can step up and as I said, they are always going to be a good team.”

When the Norway Under-21 international was asked outright if he was glad Jelavic was gone, he replied: “I have no comment on that. He has never been a Celtic player so I don’t care.

“He is a good player who is not in the SPL any more. I won’t say I am mad about it.”

Regardless of Rogne’s thoughts on the departure of Jelavic, the assumption is that Celtic will go on to win the SPL for the first time in four years.

The former Stabaek stopper, though, denies the pressure is now on Neil Lennon’s men to see it out.

“The only pressure we are under is the pressure we put on ourselves,” he said. “Of course we want to win the title, we can’t say otherwise.

“But it is only February and there is a long way to go so we don’t think about that now, we just think that we have to play well and win the games. We have a small lead but we know that we need to stay focused every game, just a small slip-up and the other teams are right behind us.

“So it is going to be difficult and as I say, it is only the start of February. There is a long way to go.”

While Rangers only made one January signing – former GAIS winger Mervan Celik – Lennon recruited Polish striker Pawel Brozek, Nigeria midfielder Rabiu Ibrahim and Swedish right-back Mikael Lustig. The Celtic manager could probably field three teams from the squad he has at his disposal but Rogne is simply focused on keeping his place.

“I have to play well to do that because we have a lot of good centre-halves,” he said.

“I know I have to train well and play well in the games.”