BRENDAN RODGERS revealed Celtic had been working until the eleventh hour in their search for a successor for Kyogo Furuhashi.
The manager was desperate to get in a replacement for the talismanic striker who joined French outfit Rennes in a £10million switch last week.
The Japanese international frontman’s rapid departure has left Rodgers with only Adam Idah as his recognised No.9 and he will lead the line in tomorrow night’s rearranged Premiership encounter against Dundee at Parkhead where a win will see the champions power 13 points clear at the top of the table.
Crystal Palace’s left-sided defender Jeffrey Schlupp arrived on a short-term loan until the end of the season, but the Hoops fans will have to wait until the new campaign before they see Kieran Tierney again in the green and white after Arsenal blocked a temporary switch.
Filipe Jota, of course, did return in this window on a five-and-a-half year contract and marked his comeback with a the final goal in the 3-1 win over Motherwell at Fir Park on Sunday.
Quizzed about the lack of a new hitman, Rodgers insisted he would not allow any frustrations to “kill his joy” with the team at the top-flight pinnacle, in the Champions League play-offs. already winners of the Premier Sports League Cup and ready to face Championship side Raith Rovers in Glasgow in the Scottish Cup last-16 tie on Saturday evening.
The Celtic gaffer said: “We’ve done some really good business in the window. A few things didn’t quite drop for us that we would have liked.
“But, however it ends, you know the squad you have and, fundamentally, we’re here to develop the players now for the rest of the season who are here.
“I think it’s something I said clearly we wanted to do, we wanted to have that support at the top end of the field. We didn’t manage to do that.
“There are so many different facets to the transfer and obviously the identification of a player, then convincing the player to come, which in the main is never a problem for here.
“But, no, we just weren’t quite able to get a deal done on that front. Like I say, it’s something that we as a club will go away, we’ll review the whole process and then look to be better again in the summer.”
Rodgers, speaking to Celtic TV, continued: “I just think they’re never as plain and simple as people will sometimes think. We all want the same at Celtic. We all know that we were losing a top-class striker in Kyogo and we wanted to bring in another one.
“But if it doesn’t happen, then we have to deal with that and we have to understand going forward the way and how we can be better in that process.
“Could we have done better? Yes, we could. However, as I said, we work with the players who are here now. That is the focus. I don’t really want to be looking back.
“I’m not going to become frustrated now and kill my joy of working here every day at the club by thinking what could have been. We can’t affect that now. We can review it and move on.”
Rodgers refuted the suggestion that selling Kyogo without having a replacement lined up was the wrong thing to do. The popular raider, who claimed 85 goals in his three and a half years following his arrival in a £4.6million switch from J-League Ville Kobe in July 2021, had made it clear months ago to the club’s hierarchy he wanted a new challenge.
The champions’ chief commented: “Some people will say that, but you don’t have the depth of knowledge that I have on the player and working with him and going back to the summer.
“It’s a fair enough thing to say. You can very easily say, you should really have someone in the door before you let him go.
“But there was a situation with that player which meant that wasn’t the case. And that was something that had been running for a number of months, not just for the few days before he left.
“So, like I said, I repeat, if a player does not want to be here, then we do the best deal and move on.”
Asked if he understood the frustration of the fans, Rodgers added: “Yeah, 100 per cent. Listen, I said it myself. We want another striker, so we’re not hiding behind anything.
“And, absolutely, the supporters will look and see our top striker going out, a legendary striker. And we haven’t replaced him. So, I understand that.
“Listen, I don’t want to pin blame on anyone here. I think, as a collective, it wasn’t ideal how it ended for us. So, what we have to do, as a club, now go away and look at that. And like we’ll do every window, that’s what you have to do.
“I think you look around, of course there wasn’t a great deal happening, but certainly all I was concerned about was for Celtic and what I needed to happen here.
“All I can do is affect what we have now and look to teach and work, and work very, very hard and finish off what has been, until now, a great season for us.”
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