‘I would be amazed’… Jim Duffy casts serious doubts over Brendan Rodgers’ January transfer plans for Celtic

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With plenty of money in the bank and a manager who seems steely in his determination to improve the Celtic squad, the fans will be looking forward to the January transfer window.

The deficiencies in the Celtic squad have been highlighted by the recent Champions League campaign and Brendan Rodgers has vowed to ensure quality players are brought into the club to reverse those.

But it seems that Rodgers’ endeavour to add instant quality to the Celtic team in the January window may be a bit premature.

That’s according to Jim Duffy who believes that to get the standard of player the Celtic manager wants, he may have to wait until the summer.

Duffy said [Clyde SSB], “I’ll be surprised if he can do a lot of business in January of the type of player he wants. Because they very rarely appear in January.

“I think it will be next summer before he gets those four players. He might get one, possibly, in January.

“But I would be amazed if the type of players that Brendan Rodgers wants to improve the squad to the level he is talking about would be available in January.”

Celtic’s last two January windows prove Jim Duffy’s theory wrong

In essence, I get the point Duffy is trying to make. January can be a notoriously difficult window to navigate.

However, if you look at what Celtic have done over the last two January windows, the club have proven that talent is there if the recruitment department does its job properly.

In January 2022, Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and Matt O’Riley were all recruited by Ange Postecoglou as the former Celtic manager used his knowledge of the Japanese market to bolster Celtic’s charge to the title in his maiden season.

A year later, Alistair Johnston, Hyeongyu Oh and Tomoki Iwata were also recruited in the January window. Whilst Iwata is yet to make his mark, it can be argued that Johnston and Oh have enjoyed varying degrees of success at Celtic.

If Rodgers can use his in-depth knowledge of the transfer market and if he has a decent contact book, there’s no reason to doubt that the 50-year-old can’t pull a couple of rabbits out of the hat in a few weeks time.

In other news, ‘I know’… Mark Guidi now makes exciting Celtic transfer claim ahead of January window