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Brendan Rodgers last night insisted Celtic still have ‘a lot of work to do’ in the transfer market — as he revealed he is not aware of any movement on a new deal for Daizen Maeda.
The Parkhead boss saw his side hammer Newcastle United yesterday through an Arne Engels penalty and efforts from Johnny Kenny, Yang Hyun-jun and Liam Scales.
New Japanese striker Shin Yamada, the club’s sixth top-team signing of pre-season, was also paraded pre-match, but Rodgers is insistent that he needs more goals in his side and needs his team to be strengthened all across the front line before the end of next month.
With Maeda now entering the last two years of his current contract, there have been rumours of a breakthrough on a new deal after a period of limbo amid interest in his services from elsewhere, but nothing concrete as yet.
Celtic are on the trail of Royal Antwerp attacker Michel-Ange Balikwisha as well as being linked with Louis Munteanu of Romanian outfit Cluj — and Rodgers is clear on the fact plenty has to be addressed in terms of bolstering the squad in the
wake of selling Kyogo Furuhashi to Rennes for £10million in January and hauling in £17m from Como for Nicolas Kuhn earlier in the month.
Rodgers insisted Celtic still hope to bring in new faces before the transfer deadline
New signing Shin Yamada was introduced to supporters ahead of the match at Celtic Park
Maeda tussles with Newcastle’s Kieran Trippier during the 4-0 win at Celtic Park
‘We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but the guys that are training and working with us are doing so well,’ he said. ‘You saw that today.
‘I would expect us, by the end of the window, to have brought in players in certain areas of the pitch that we need to go through a really long season.
‘I think it’s about bringing goals to the squad. When you’ve just scored four goals, that seems to be OK, but we lost an important player in January in Kyogo and we’ve lost Nicolas Kuhn, a lot of goals again. Even Matt O’Riley last summer.
‘Even though we scored a lot of goals last season, we still want more, and our ambition is to have more, so I think, all across the front areas, we have to be active in order to give us that depth.’
Asked if there had been any progress on negotiations with Maeda and his advisors, Rodgers replied: ‘Not that I’m aware of. But he’s a professional and his focus is very much on here.’
Despite looking for added striking power, Rodgers has stated that new boy Yamada will bring more pace to the team than buzzbomb Maeda.
Tierney was afforded a warm welcome by fans on his return and set up Scales for his goal
‘His profile suits how we play,’ he said. ‘He’s one of the quickest players from the Japanese league. He’s even quicker than Daizen and Kyogo in terms of statistics, and that’s how we play, with that speed in the top line. I’m really looking forward to seeing what he can bring.’
Rodgers was also delighted to see Kieran Tierney, who set up Scales for his goal with an excellent cross, receive a thunderous reception when coming on in the second half.
‘I wanted him to get a specific welcome back, because, at his age, he could easily be playing at the top end of the (English) Premier League,’ he said. ‘To get a player of that level is amazing for us.’
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