Brendan Rodgers 'would be preparing for five-a-side' if transfer rumours were true

Brendan Rodgers says he would be preparing for a five-a-side game this weekend if all rumours of potential outgoings were true.

The Celtic boss said his side have ambitions to compete in Europe and raise the bar in regards to their performances in the Champions League, and to do that, they aim to come out of this month stronger than they started it.

This week has seen a host of first team stars including Matt O’Riley, Kyogo Furuhashi and Reo Hatate linked with potential moves away from the club.

But while the manager admits that one or two could be heading for the exit door, he insists that they will continue to improve the team for the weeks and months ahead.

Speaking to media on Friday as they prepare for a trip to St Mirren, he said: “We are in a good place at this moment, we have another 24 hours to go then we will see where we are.

“But, the likes of Kyogo should be back for the weekend, which is good, and I’m not sure there was too many other ones that were out.”

The Japan forward has reportedly been attracting interest from English champions Manchester City in the last few days and Rodgers admits that it’s what to expect due to the level of his performances over his time in Scotland.

He said: “I’m not surprised (with the Man City links), he’s a wonderful player, but looking at all the links and gossip and speculation this week, I thought I would be preparing for a five-a-side game at the weekend, if we are going to lose all these players.

“Over this summer period and especially going into the last week of the market there is always going to be some speculation around, but there is nothing new to add to any of that.

“Representatives will get to work, they’ve got to create the speculation and we’ll see what comes from there.

“But at this moment there is nothing new to add.”

Star midfielder O’Riley has been heavily linked with a move away for the last few months, with Atalanta and Brighton the most recent to have a registered interest.

And, again, Rodgers says there is nothing new to report in that regard.

“Matt trained with us this morning, as he always does as an ultimate professional, absolutely brilliant, there have been a number of offers that have come in for Matt and, like I say, there is nothing new to report there.”

Asked if there could become a time in the window when it would become too late for Celtic to accept any bids due to the need to bring in ready made replacements, he said: “Yeah, for any player it’s not going to go right down to the wire, after the game at the weekend we have a big week ahead preparing for our last game before the international break.

“I wouldn’t want that to be interrupted at all, so we are pretty clear where we are and what it is we need to do.

“Currently at this moment in time, I’m really happy with the squad, both on a level of quality and on a human level because it is a privilege to work with this group.

“However, if we want to improve as a club, we will have to improve the squad and that’s been very clear for a while.

“I’m sat here with a great bunch of player, you can see that in the level they are playing at, but in September, after the international break, we go into a really heavy schedule again and for us to competing in all competitions domestically and in Europe, not just participating but competing, we will have to do some work in the market.

“We want to improve, this is a football club with incredible potential and for some players we won’t be the end game, we get that but that doesn’t mean that our benchmark is just domestically.

“We have got to have a high bar, and the bar at this club has been set having won the Champions League/the European Cup, so we don’t want to be a team that just participates, takes the money then comes back and is happy with just domestic success.

“The benchmark is much higher than that, we want to be in there competing and fighting, we don’t have the resources that some clubs do but we certainly can be in there to compete and to do that we need to improve and that’s what we want to do every single season.”