Celtic won on the road in Paisley against St Mirren today as teenager Francis Turley made his first team debut for Celtic.
Post match, I asked Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers about the youngster and the lack of transfer activity at Celtic Park so far.
On Francis Turley, who made his Celtic debut today. There’s a lot of excitement around him in Northern Ireland. Is he someone that could be around the first team group this season or could he potentially go out on loan?
“No [he will not go out on loan], I think he needs to stay, and I was really impressed with him over the course of pre-season. He still has a lot of maturation, and I think that what we don’t need to do is put a lot of hype into a young 18-year-old player. Just take your time. He’s a talent, and we’ve seen talents leave here because they’re impatient. I don’t see that. I’ve been with Francis now over the summer. He signed a new deal, had his family in. They trust the club, which is important in his development.
“So for me, it’s giving that hope to the young players that they have a place here. He still has so much physical development to come, but technically he’s very good in the game. So that just gives him that bit more oxygen and that feeling of being out there for Celtic. But he knows himself, and he’s got a lot of work. He knows what to do. But that’s why he’s here. But great for him and his family and, like you say, for Northern Ireland.”
How big a week is it for the club with the transfer deadline approaching on Friday?
“It’s a really important week for us. As a football club, we want to develop, we want to improve.
“We can’t be happy just to make our money and build our pot because the bottom line is on the pitch. That’s the bottom line. The supporters, they pay the money. I look back to the Covid times here, the Celtic supporters sold the stadium out and they weren’t allowed in it.
“So we have the duty to put the best team on the pitch. That’s what we’ll do and look to do. It’s taken a bit longer than I would have liked. But if we can do it by Friday, strengthen the squad, we’ll be in a really, really good place. The team is in a good place, mentally, tactically, how they’re playing. But we want to strengthen and have that depth.
“It’s taken a lot longer than I would have liked as the football manager. That’s my brutally honest answer on it. But I will repeat this. If we get them in, then there’s still a long season ahead. So it’s important that we do get that. And I have belief that we will do.
“There are a number of things I won’t go into here. But it’s definitely something – having come back in and gone through three windows now – we have to put right as a football club. We shouldn’t have been getting into this last week in the position we’re in. That’s the reality.
“However, that’s something for us for after this window. As I said, we’ll get the players in that we want. We don’t need to manufacture our own stress when there’s no need. We don’t need to do that. So we’ll be calm this week. We’ll look to get the players in that can strengthen us.”
Callum McFadden 