Celtic's Welsh may require shoulder surgery
Welsh has twice been loaned out by Celtic, most recently to Mechelen in the first part of 2025. All in all, he has made 107 competitive appearances.First team regular Luke McCowan and 18-year-old defender Colby Donovan scored in Celtic's 2-1 win at Pairc Ui Chaoimh."He's very competitive and I like him," Rodgers said of Donovan. "He's very aggressive, he passes forward."He'll become a bit less rash as his career moves forward but I like his personality and I like his dominance and he can play football, which you have to be able to do when you play for Celtic."Meanwhile, defender Gustaf Lagerbielke has left Celtic to join Braga in Portugal. Sweden cap Lagerbielke, 25.
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BBC News
11 minutes ago
- BBC News
Celtic's lack of cutting edge laid bare
Adam Idah paid the price for Celtic's insipid first-half showing against Kairat as the striker struggles to live up to his £9m price was hooked at half-time of the goalless home draw with the Kazakh side in the Champions League play-off that leaves Celtic's hopes of progression in the 24-year-old forward had only 12 touches in the opening 45 minutes - none of them inside the opposition box. He won only one of his three tackles, was dispossessed once, and failed to muster a shot on lack of attacking impetus, impact and movement led to manager Rodgers admitting a change had to be made. "There's no rocket science in it. It's all hard work and preparation and all that leads to confidence," said Rodgers."I wanted a bit more activity in and around the box. Adam is a good, honest boy. He's not started how he'd like, and in games like this here I can't afford to wait."Idah wasn't the only Celtic striker to toil on Wednesday night, lending weight to Rodgers' repeated calls for attacking Maeda deputised through the middle before summer arrival Shin Yamada saw out the final 15 minutes as Celtic's attacking focal managed just one touch in the Kairat box and registered no shots on goal, while Maeda, who played the full 90 minutes, had a sole attempt at goal - a golden chance late on that he sent straight at the goalkeeper - and three touches of the ball inside the the three players - Idah, Maeda, and Yamada - who spent time as Celtic's main striker combined for a total of 0.09 expected fairness, the service to the strikers was poor on a night Celtic mustered an xG of just 0.54. Can Rodgers' side find more attacking thrust in the second leg?
Daily Mail
40 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
It's Brendan v The Board, Part 2... another summer of transfer discontent has left an unhappy manager and Celtic walking a £40m Champions League tightrope
By the time the 100th minute of a desperate struggle against Kairat had come and gone, it had become impossible to ascertain what Celtic 's plan was. Liam Scales, nominally a centre-half, was playing at left back. Daizen Maeda no longer seemed sure if his role was through the middle or out on the flank. Shin Yamada, a striker who'd replaced a midfielder in Benjamin Nygren, was everywhere the ball had just been. A bench which began with £6million Auston Trusty and £11m Arne Engels seated on it had been accommodating £9m Adam Idah since half-time with James Forrest giving the Irishman company once his 34-year-old legs could give no more. With a bang average visiting team comfortably defending their box on the rare occasion a dismal Celtic side ventured anywhere near it, there was an air of resignation among the home support long before the Norwegian referee mercifully blew for time. If ever a display mirrored a club's off-field preparation for a match then this was it: The most pitiful transfer window in recent memory manifest in a woefully inadequate show. While Brendan Rodgers ' players still ought to have acquitted themselves far better than they did, it was telling that the fingers of blame were angrily pointed in the direction of chief executive Michael Nicholson and chairman Peter Lawwell. Frankly, the level of rancour in the stadium suggested it's going to take more than an unlikely triumph in Kazakhstan on Tuesday to stop the disconnect between the supporters and the boardroom from deepening. Celtic's hierarchy had known that Scotland's champions would require to negotiate a play-off match since April of last year. They made £40m through direct entry last season. With a modest investment across the past two months, they'd have been all but assured of banking that gargantuan sum again. Instead, a squad with glaring inadequacies must pull this one out of the fire next week. Make no mistake - if they fail, it will be nothing short of a humiliation. Rarely has the old wisdom about what happens when you fail to prepare felt more apt. In the media room afterwards, the manager did his best to answer questions which mostly related to the chants of 'Sack the Board' - the response of thousands present to the lack of backing he's enjoyed from his paymasters to this stage. When pointedly asked if the fans should fans accept how their club's being run, the Northern Irishman played a straight bat. 'Well listen, that's not for me to answer.' In other words, ask those above me. If only we could. This speaks to one of the main issues at Celtic. The complete lack of communication between the boardroom and the rank and file. If the directors did hatch a plan beyond crossing their fingers and toes to get through this tie, then no one has made it known. It's not a good look to be stockpiling money when the team is crying out for reinforcements. Has Nicholson hit the bar with a succession of deals for players with pedigree or has he not even come close? In the unlikely event that he ever agrees to be scrutinised on the matter, it would be interesting to hear. From 20 paces, the picture is inscrutable. At last check, Celtic had £65.4m in the bank - with the promise of more money to come from the back end of last season's commendable run in Europe. Another £10m was piled on top when Kyogo Furuhashi left for Rennes in January. A further £16.5m followed when Nicolas Kuhn joined Como. As well as the regular season ticket money, the pot was further swollen by the sales of Gustaf Lagerbielke and Kwon Hyeok-kyo. All told, that's approximately £100m. More than enough to bolster the squad with plenty left in reserve. But instead of refuelling the vehicle and trying to go one better than their near miss against Bayern Munich, Celtic have put a few drips in the tank. Kieran Tierney returned from Arsenal on big wages but for no transfer fee. The £1.8m spent on Nygren from Nordsjaelland is the biggest outlay so far with Yamada costing £1.5m from Kawasaki Frontale. As well as the outgoing transfers of Furuhashi and Kuhn, the side has lost Jota to a long-term injury. That's an awful lot of pace, ingenuity and goals. The need to compensate for that ahead of Kairat was abundantly clear. Rodgers said it time and time again. They had the funds, yet they failed to deliver. You cannot blame those who've parted with their hard-earned cash feeling angry at watching the engine cough and splutter on Tuesday. Celtic as a club have never been more astute at making money. Their inability to reinvest it this year made Tuesday's debacle feel like an accident waiting to happen and again raises questions about how it operates. Appointed head of football operations in October, one of Paul Tisdale's stated roles included the 'identification and development of talent'. What's become of him? Have the targets he's presumably flagged up not matched up with the manager's expectations? Or have the club simply not been able to get deals over the line? Whatever the reason, it's clearly dysfunctional. There was a moment towards the end of Rodgers' pre-match press conference on Monday which got lost at the time but is now worthy of revisiting. Asked why Hayato Inamura, a defender who joined to much fanfare from Albirex Niigata, wasn't in his Champions League squad, the manager's answer was revealing. 'Yeah, very easy,' said the Rodgers. 'He's not quite at the level, as of yet, that I would expect.' Seriously? So why, you might well ask, is he even here? Who's sanctioning a move for a 23-year-old who isn't up to scratch when the team's crying out for players to help them reach the Champions League? It doesn't smack of a club where everyone is on the same page. Rodgers stopped just short of admitting this is the heart of the matter after Tuesday's stalemate. 'I don't necessarily need control,' he stressed. 'If there's alignment, I want what's best for the football team.' While it would be hard to argue that Idah, Trusty, Arne Engels or Paulo Bernardo (an unused sub against Kairat) have delivered value for money so far, a failure to give the manager what he so clearly needs to take the club forward serves no purpose. It's all becoming very reminiscent of seven years ago when Rodgers' barbs at the board preceded a loss to AEK Athens at this juncture and his departure in the February. As things stand, the smart money is on him heading for the hills when his contract expires next summer. The difference, this time around, is that no one will blame him.
BBC News
40 minutes ago
- BBC News
Falkirk given OK to keep astro next season
The SPFL has granted Falkirk permission to use their artificial pitch next season should they stay in the Scottish Premiership at the end of this clubs voted in May 2024 to phase out the use of artificial pitches, but Falkirk, Kilmarnock and Livingston were allowed to keep them this league says Falkirk will lay a grass pitch for the 2027-28 campaign, and the SPFL will advance some of its fees to help the club install a new surface.A statement said the league is "sympathetic" to Falkirk's case, having put down their current pitch in 2023 before the rule change."As a fan-owned and newly-promoted club, having to find such a significant sum to replace a perfectly good surface could have threatened our club's future," a Falkirk spokesperson said."While we still believe there is a place for high quality artificial surfaces at all levels of the game in Scotland, we also had to act responsibly in the here and now - and that meant reaching a compromise that prevented uncertainty for Scottish football and for our club."We hope other SPFL member clubs will be treated with similar flexibility, and thank the SPFL for their cooperation and diligence."Kilmarnock have stated their intention to lay a grass pitch, while Livingston put down a fresh artificial surface only this summer.
