CELTIC CONFIDENTIAL: Barcelona set to deliver major blow to Brendan Rodgers, how team news leaks are damaging the club and why journalists were forced to cover their eyes in Hampden Park tunnel
Barcelona are considering a shock move to cut Alex Valle’s Celtic loan short in January.
Catalan journal El National.cat claim the Catalan giants have been impressed by the left back’s impact in Glasgow.
And, concerned by the form of Alejandro Balde, president Joan Laporta and Hansi Flick are now considering an offer to compensate Celtic for cutting his 12-month loan deal short and taking the 20-year-old back to the Camp Nou in January.
The reports come as talks between Celtic and Greg Taylor over a new contract have reached a state of stalemate.
Speaking in September Brendan Rodgers claimed that a new deal for the left back was a ‘priority.’
Barcelona are considering a shock move to cut Alex Valle’s Celtic loan short in January
There are concerns at the Catalan club over the form of their current left back Alejandro Balde
Barcelona president Joan Laporta could compensate Celtic as a result of cutting short the loan
However, with his current contract set to lapse in the summer, the 27-year-old has yet to sign on the dotted line and will be free to speak to other clubs come January.
While discussions between the two sides are ‘ongoing’, efforts to reach an agreement have hit a bump in the road, with Taylor’s Parkhead future unclear.
Now engaged in a joust for the left back slot with on-loan Barcelona youngster Alex Valle, speculation continues to surround the likelihood of a prodigal return to Parkhead for Arsenal’s Kieran Tierney next summer.
Taylor was left out of the starting line-up for the 6-0 weekend win over Aberdeen in the semi-finals of the Premier Sports Cup before coming on as a second-half substitute.
Explaining why he introduced the former Kilmarnock man to the play Rodgers made a point of emphasising what the defender brings to the team.
‘You see Greg Taylor coming on,’ he said. ‘He can clean up the game for us.
‘Alex was really good, but then we wanted to just get it cleaner with our passing and get a better control. And Greg comes in and does that superbly well. As does (Liam) Scales.
‘They’re both very, very important players for us.’
Valle has impressed for Celtic since making the temporary switch to Parkhead in the summer
It comes at a time when talks with Greg Taylor over a new contract have reached a stalemate
Rodgers facing same problem as Lennon
Brendan Rodgers might like to place a call to former Celtic manager Neil Lennon in his bid to find the mole responsible for leaking his team lines on social media.
The current Parkhead boss is disappointed that his starting XIs for last week’s league win over Dundee and the weekend hammering of Aberdeen appeared on the internet hours before kick-off. He made it clear on Sunday that the culprit is hurting the club.
Lennon had similar problems during his second spell in charge of Celtic and even went as far as threatening to bring in forensic experts to go through players’ mobile telephones.
‘Even at Celtic, in my second spell, we would pick the team a day before,’ reflected Lennon. ‘Then, the team would be out on the wires at like 7pm that night.
‘You’re thinking: “It’s coming from somewhere in the building”. Sometimes, even the players can do you in if they’re out of the team. It wouldn’t have happened 10-15 years ago but it’s such a common trend now. I am wary of naming a team a day before the game but it’s what the players like.
‘You are just giving the opposition an advantage here – because either someone is getting paid money for it or they are giving it to a betting company, or this guy is feeding them a few… I don’t know. It was just so wrong on so many levels.
‘It wasn’t leaked to the media, it was leaked to somebody and this guy would put it on Twitter. Somebody in the dressing room or the building is doing this. We tried all sorts to stop it. I said “we are bringing in forensic computer IT guys to check your phones and blah, blah’’. And it stopped for a while. But then, bang, it started again.’
Rodgers was clear following their Premier Sports Cup semi-final victory over Aberdeen at Hampden that he wants the release of confidential information from within the dressing room to stop.
‘My thoughts are that it’s obviously clearly disappointing,’ he said. ‘It’s something that we’ve seen before. It’s not ideal however it comes out.
‘In the modern game, there are no real secrets in football. That’s the reality of it, but it’s not nice when it gets out there – and especially if it’s out from Celtic supporters.
‘It might feel great for someone’s ego to put it out and pass it on to other people, but I can tell you, as a manager, that I’ve had that before with other teams.
‘When I’ve got to know about it, it has really, really helped me in my preparation – because I’ve come up against a plan to play against a team, and I’ve then been told the day before the game that the team was going to play a totally different shape.
‘Whoever is putting it out, if it’s someone from Celtic, you’re not a Celtic supporter because you’re not helping Celtic.
‘If you’re not a Celtic supporter, we will do everything we can to find out. But for me, I don’t get angry about it. It’s just the modern world now, isn’t it? There’s so much communication.’
Brendan Rodgers hit out at whoever is leaking confidential team news information at Celtic
Neil Lennon faced similar problems during his second spell in charge of the club
Celtic still feeling impact of summer 2023
It’s taken Celtic a while to repair the damage caused by their scattergun approach to recruitment in the summer of 2023.
Marco Tilio is back in Australia. Kwon Hyeok-kyu is on loan at Hibs. Gustaf Lagerbielke has moved to Twente on a temporary basis.
But whatever happened to Odin Thiago Holm? Remember him? The £2.6million signing from Valerenga who took his middle name from the former Bayern Munich and Liverpool midfielder?
The difference between Holm and most players who came in last year was that he looked to have something about him in his early run-outs.
Yet, he’s fallen so far out of the picture that he’s become the forgotten man of Parkhead. He wasn’t even in the team photograph this season, wasn’t included in the Champions League squad and hasn’t kicked a ball since a run out against St Mirren on August 25.
But he is still in the building with Rodgers confirming last week that he’s been having issues with his calves.
The Northern Irishman loves a challenge in turning an individual’s form around (see Nicolas Kuhn for details), but it’s surely impossible to see the Norwegian forcing his way into the side ahead of Paulo Bernardo and Luke McCowan. A January loan move ahead of a permanent departure surely awaits.
Odin Thiago Holm (right) is the forgotten man and is unlikely to have a future with the club
Celtic board silencing the critics
Celtic broke their own transfer record twice in the same window to sign Adam Idah and Arne Engels. The team are going well, domestically and in Europe. So the heat has been turned down on a board who were accused of hoarding cash when it emerged that there was £72m sitting in the bank.
Those supporters who questioned the club amassing cash in such a way now have another reason to pipe down.
Drone footage emerged this week of the development at Barrowfield. And while there is evidently much work to be done if the training complex is to be opened on schedule at the end of this year, it looks like being spectacular.
Designed to house the club’s women’s and academy teams, it boasts multiple changing areas, indoor and outdoor training facilities and a new medical and sports science unit.
The difference from the days when Jock Stein’s Lisbon Lions used to run around on muddy pitches there in full view of the public is like night and day,
So impressive does the new development look that the first-team players might well question why they are still stationed at Lennoxtown.
Celtic broke their own transfer record twice in the same window to sign Adam Idah and Arne Engels over the summer so the heat has been turned down on a board who came under fire
And in more positive news, the development at Barrowfield – which will house Celtic’s women’s and academy teams – looks like it will be spectacular, although there’s still work to be done
Right inside Celtic’s sanctum
The two dressing rooms at Hampden are separated by a large indoor warm-up area.
Used on game days as a mixed zone for post-match interviews with players from both teams, the warm-up area was also utilised as a makeshift Celtic treatment room after Saturday’s thumping 6-0 win over Aberdeen in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final.
Journalists accustomed to standing behind a barrier waiting for players traipsing through with a mobile phone pinned to their ear had no idea where to look as a shirtless Reo Hatate warmed down on an exercise bike while coach Gavin Strachan administered a post-match debrief.
On a bench in the corner, Auston Trusty received a deep rub massage to relieve limbs stretched to the limit by recent games. Paulo Bernardo wrapped a pack of precautionary ice around a foot as he scrolled through his mobile phone.
The warm-down is arguably the most important component of the football recovery process. It works all the lactic acid out of the muscles, reduces stiffness and leaves players less susceptible to injury. With a rapid turnaround before their Champions League match against Red Bull Leipzig, Celtic left nothing to chance.
None of which eased the discomfort of written journalists unaccustomed to being in the same postcode as a piece of gym equipment.
Celtic youngsters shining in Austria
Ben Summers and Matthew Anderson are causing a stir during their loan spells with Admira Wacker – having played a big part in driving the club five points clear at the top of the Austrian second tier.
Both 20-year-olds started in last Friday’s vital 1-0 home win over second-placed SV Ried and have made a really positive impression in their club’s title drive.
Anderson spent last term at the Austrians and made 21 appearances at left-back while Summers moved at the beginning of the current campaign.
Summers, who broke into the first-team squad at Parkhead under Ange Postecoglou, spent last term with Dunfermline Athletic, but had to end his time there in April with a back problem and returned to Celtic’s Lennoxtown training base for rehab over the summer.
Rodgers’ fashion Faux Pas
Brendan Rodgers became infamous over a story about a Gucci belt – and his fashion sense now has Celtic fans inquiring about shoes by American designer Tom Ford.
Rodgers slipped and fell in the technical area when kicking the ball in frustration at the end of the first half of his side’s 6-0 win over Aberdeen in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final.
In a TV interview after the game, he laughed with ex-Celtic defender Charlie Mulgrew about his Tom Fords not having studs.
Rodgers’ choice of apparel made headlines when former Reading midfielder Matt Mills told a tale on the Undr The Cosh podcast about their time together at the Royals.
Brendan Rodgers suffered the ignominy of slipping over when he kicked the ball in frustration
Mills had asked Rodgers why he wasn’t playing, and the manager responded by pointing to his waistband and saying: ‘Gucci belt.’
‘He is so here for the lifestyle,’ recalled Mills. ‘I said, “yeah, nice belt that, mate – but we’re bottom of the league”.’
Any Celtic fans looking to step out like The Brodge in some Tom Fords for the festive party season had better start saving up, though. A nice pair of patent leather Elkan lace-ups on Ford’s official website cost just short of £1,200.
