CALLUM MCGREGOR has urged the Celtic board to ‘help’ manager Brendan Rodgers in January as he tries to build a team capable of competing in European football.
Rodgers has consistently spoken of the need for quality additions to his Celtic squad since the summer, and he reiterated the point after watching his team crash out of European competition for the season with their 2-0 defeat to Lazio in the Stadio Olimpico on Tuesday evening.
Celtic went into the game without the likes of Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda and Luis Palma, and their back-up cast proved unable to break the team’s wretched run at the top level.
Now, Celtic captain McGregor has backed Rodgers’ call for reinforcements, and he says he is sure that the club’s board will get behind his manager in January.
“We always need help,” McGregor said.
“If you ask any manager how many new players does he want, he will always say it’s as many as he can.
“And it’s the same for the players. We want as many good players coming through the door as we can. That builds competition in training and games all the time. And the level just accelerates from there.
“We want to continue to push as a club and as a group and I’m sure they will do that.
““I think they will [back him in the transfer window]. January is notorious for being the one where they can see how the first half of the season plays out.
“And whatever we need, they have a good track record of doing that, in terms of backing the team and backing the manager.
“I am sure that’ll happen in January.”
McGregor does feel though that Celtic have been hard done by to only pick up a single point for their Champions League efforts so far this season, and he is determined to put a more positive slant on their campaign by closing it out with a win against Feyenoord in a fortnight.
“We feel we deserve to have more points than we do,” he said.
“So I think if we go and win the last game I don’t think it will be a surprise to anyone.
“We have played well enough throughout the competition to warrant more points.
“The last game gives us a chance to get a win and finish with more points that we did last year. That would show a bit of improvement.
“There is all to play for every time you play for Celtic. There is pride there, we’re playing for the games no matter what. There is no doubt that we’ll be giving everything to try and win that one.
“Before that we have some big games. It’s a really busy period with every game massive between now and the next break. It’s full steam ahead.”
