With Celtic about to start the defence of their Scottish title and dealing with a crunch Champions League qualifying play-off, simply how outfitted are they to construct on current success and progress once more this season?

Recruitment, aligned to key departures, has been a central theme of Celtic supporter dialog of late, with obvious concern that the squad is missing in numerous areas that was echoed by supervisor Brendan Rodgers saying on Friday that there are “gaps within the squad which can be very clear”.

There’s nonetheless an extended method to go within the switch window, however with the expectation of a stronger title problem from Rangers and a transparent want for continued participation at European soccer’s high desk, are Celtic able to tackle the quick challenges forward?

Rodgers focused enchancment in Europe as a key purpose on his return to the membership and obtained that final season, pushing Bayern Munich within the Champions League play-off stage to narrowly miss out on a final 16 spot.

Participation on that stage this season can be decided by a play-off in just below a month and lacking out could be a big setback.

With only one yr left on Rodgers’ three-year contract, what occurs over the approaching weeks could go an extended method to figuring out if he believes he can proceed such development.

Certainly, regardless of saying he’s “very pleased” at Celtic, the 52-year-old Northern Irishman careworn he’s “not the kind of supervisor” to stay round if a membership is merely treading water and that there was “no replace” on a brand new contract.