Celtic <\/a>boss admitted he wanted to have reinforcements on board before the crunch Kairat clash. But he\u2019s convinced there is enough quality on board to get the job done.<\/p>\nRodgers remained tight-lipped on Vardy and said: \u201c\u2018Listen I would not speak about any individual player. Of course, I’ve worked really well with Jamie.<\/p>\n
“He was brilliant for me in my time at Leicester. But no, there’s been so many names floated about. But I wouldn’t disclose anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodgers\u2019s focus is on Kairat but he admitted Celtic would need to tool up for the group stage. He said: \u201cWell, I think firstly, we want to qualify, of course. And if it’s with this group of players, I’m confident that we can do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing forward, listen, it’s clear we would have to improve the squad.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Jamie](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_Leicester-City-v-Wolverhampton-Wanderers-Premier-League.jpg\")
Jamie Vardy and Brendan Rodgers at Leicester(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Rodgers is refusing to throw the toys out of the pram after a stuttering summer in the transfer window and he\u2019s urged his squad to shut out the outside noise around the tie.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cNo, listen, I’m experienced. I’ve been here long enough, and I understand where we’re at. So I’m not going to get too frustrated about it, because I can’t really control a lot of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what I can control is the players that we have, helping them be the very best that they can be, and making sure that they’re prepared, and making sure that they’re ready.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose players there just now have given me absolutely everything. So, I’m not going to get into a situation where I look frustrated or am frustrated, because that transfers onto the players that I have. And those guys, these boys have been brilliant.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we’re hoping that if we get somebody in or not, it’ll be great. If not, then we’ll go with what we’ve got. We’ll do everything we can, and try to ensure all the details are right for the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then, see if we can take Celtic back into the Champions League again, which is ultimately what we want to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’re a little bit more philosophical about it. It’s so important because that emotional transfer can get through with players.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s even more noise now around the game, not just Celtic, but around the game. But it is very much experience that helps you massively, of course.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s understanding. I’ve been doing this for quite a while now. You can control what you can in the squad of players that you have.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_Celtic-FC-MD-1-Training-and-Press-Conference.jpg\")
Brendan Rodgers(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, we need to push. I said it before, I want Celtic to live in the best possible place they can be on and off the pitch.<\/p>\n
“And that’s not only players. That’s about infrastructure. “That is about academy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is everything to do with Celtic. Getting out the very best operation that we possibly can. And I know for that, that will always be about success on the pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you get success on the pitch, everything else flows from that.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you would like to think you can be a little bit more philosophical at times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodgers vowed to go all out against the Kazakhs to take a lead into next week\u2019s second leg. He said: \u201cI think it’s how we play.<\/p>\n
“We set off in every game to go and attack the game and play our football in it. And this will be no different.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo of the three experiences I’ve had in qualification, having gone through qualification phases, has been based around a really, really good first leg (against Hapoel Beer Sheva and Astana).<\/p>\n
\u2018In both of those, we scored five goals. So for us, it’s really that attack and intent in the game and being really, really difficult to play against. And then hopefully, we can then take an advantage into the second leg.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hoops boss has not hidden his desire to add to his squad but he’s still in confident…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[1191,1187,9574,9571,18,19,17,9572,9573,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-9755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-brendan-rodgers","9":"tag-celtic-fc","10":"tag-celtic-transfer-news","11":"tag-champions-league","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-jamie-vardy","16":"tag-leicester-city-fc","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_Screenshot-2025-08-19-at-155936.png\")
Brendan Rodgers<\/p>\n