This is the week that Celtic fans have been waiting all summer for. They kick-off their season this Friday evening when they travel to Belfast to take on Northern Ireland champions Linfield in UEFA Champions League qualifying.
It’s been a short close and pre-season for the Hoops, who finished last season just six weeks ago with their famous Scottish Cup final win over Aberdeen at Hampden.
That season is now in the history books though and Brendan Rodgers will be forging ahead into new challenges with his Celtic squad. Of course, after such a successful season wholesale changes aren’t needed.
That doesn’t mean some key squad tweaking shouldn’t take place though and after already signing Jonny Hayes and Bundai Kenyu, it’s clear Rodgers is looking to change things up a little.
That will inevitable mean some players move on too and while the Hoops will be looking to hold on to all of their key talent, we reckon there are some players that should be moved on to free up squad space for incoming transfers.
Here are THREE players that Celtic must get rid of this summer…
Gary Mackay-Steven
While his former Dundee United teammate Stuart Armstrong has made himself a vital part of Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic team, it’s been quite the opposite for Gary Mackay-Steven.
To be fair to the winger, competition has been fierce in his playable positions with Scott Sinclair, James Forrest and Patrick Roberts in sparkling form throughout last season. Opportunities to play were few and far between and he made just a handful of appearances under Rodgers.
When he did get an opportunity though he didn’t seize and didn’t really have a single performance of note.
It’s now more and more apparent that he isn’t going to make it at Celtic and he’s arguably too talented to waste his career on the bench. He actually finds himself in a similar position to the likes of Niall McGinn, who also struggled to get a game for the Hoops but went on to have a great career in the Scottish top-flight.
Perhaps a similar move would do him the world of good, freeing up space for Celtic to bring in another classy winger after the signing of Jonny Hayes.
Nadir Ciftci
Like Gary Mackay-Steven, Nadir Ciftci moved from Dundee United but has arguably contributed even less than his former teammate on Tayside. These two players were stars for the Arabs, sparking their downfall under Jackie McNamara and ultimately relegation into the Scottish Championship.
However, Ciftci simply hasn’t made the grade at Celtic and he is not competent back-up to the likes of Moussa Dembele and Leigh Griffiths, two elite strikers who can bang in the goals consistently.
Celtic need a new third man, someone to challenge those two, or they need to bring through some young talent like Jack Aitchison into the first-team set-up on a more regular basis.
Either way it’s clear that Ciftci isn’t good enough for Rodgers’ side and he wasn’t even included in their pre-season tour of Austria.
Nir Bitton
Nir Bitton is a player who has contributed far more than the other two players on this list but even then, we reckon his time at Celtic should be coming to a close. While he does have attributes that have been useful to Brendan Rodgers’ team over the last 12 months, chiefly his ability to add a bit of composure and calmness to the midfield, he simply doesn’t quite fit the way the Hoops play now.
His style is measured and deliberate and Rodgers has instilled an exciting, swashbuckling style into Celtic’s midfield that has destroyed almost all of the opposition that has come up against them. The likes of Stuart Armstrong and Callum McGregor are now ahead of him in the pecking order and Scott Brown is undroppable too.
With Kundai Benyu also arriving to develop his midfield skills and Olivier Ntcham reportedly on the verge of joining the Hoops, there is simply little space for him now and given they can likely get a decent fee for the Israeli, it’s time for him to move on.
