Rodgers forced to dig very deep for Sligo squad

Rodgers forced to dig very deep for Sligo squad

Brendan Rodgers will need to dig very deep into the payroll for tonight’s match against Sligo Rovers.

Callum McGregor, Kyogo Furuhashi, Nicolas Kuhn, Luis Palma and Luke McCowan are available for the friendly match but beyond that there won’t be many familiar faces.

Goalkeepers Kasper Schemeichel and Viljami Sinisalo are both away with their countries, Tony Ralston and James Forrest are with Scotland, Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda with Japan with Liam Scales and Adam Idah in the Irish squad.

Stephen Welsh, Maik Nawrocki and Odin Thiago Holm can step up with the B team the next port of call even if they are smarting from losing three goals in the last 10 minutes of Saturday’s match at Bo’ness United.

Three players from the B squad- Mitchell Frame, Josh Dede and Colby Donovan are in the Scotland u-19 squad for friendlies away to Hungary today and on Sunday.

Rodgers will lead the Celtic squad which flies out this morning to face Sligo who are sitting in sixth place in the LOI table, seven points behind leaders Shelbourne but with a game in hand, Sligo drew 0-0 away to Shelbourne in their last match, on September 27.

? Team news! ??

Here is how the young Hoops line-up to face Bo’ness United this afternoon ???#BONCEL | #CelticFC? pic.twitter.com/TarzoikrYU

— Celtic FC B (@CelticFCB) October 5, 2024

Celtic could blow Rangers out of the water after ‘huge’ reveal – Stefan Borson

Celtic could start to outspend Rangers by a “huge” amount if they can consistently secure their place in the knockout rounds of the Champions League.

That is the view of finance expert Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider a place in the knockout rounds could be worth up to £100million to the Scottish champions.

Celtic lost 7-1 against Borussia Dortmund in their second group stage game on the back of their 5-1 victory over Slovan Bratislava in their opening fixture.

The Glasgow giants still have to make the trips to Atalanta, Dinamo Zagreb and Aston Villa in the competition, while they will face RB Leipzig, Club Brugge and Young Boys at home.

But they are already likely to make significantly more than Rangers from their European exploits due to the difference in prize money on offer in the Champions League compared to the Europa League.

Celtic will increase financial gap to Rangers with European success

Borson insisted Celtic will continue to increase the financial gap between the two Old Firm sides if they can qualify for the knockout rounds of the competition.

He told Football Insider: “Their focus will be ‘Can we win our home games, become a regular in the second phase of the Champions League, start to get £100million per annum and, if we can, then we can start to spend more money on the wage bill’.

“Their key focus then can continually be Champions League, and Rangers will find it very hard to keep up if they manage to do that.

Join the Football Insider WhatsApp channel to get all our exclusives and the breaking transfer news FIRST.

“That’s the other side to the equation of course.

“If they are outspending Rangers by a huge amount because they have got Champions League, that clearly will give Rangers a problem.

“That won’t be Celtic’s concern, but it will be Scottish football’s concern.”