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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Ewan Paton

Celtic transfer targets given brutal Brendan Rodgers address

Brendan Rodgers has rubbished two Celtic transfer rumours.

It was claimed over the past few days that Gremio winger Ferreira and Egyptian prospect Mohamed Reda were on the radar of the club this summer.

However, Hoops boss Rodgers has poured cold water over both names as he addressed the speculation in yesterday's post-match press conference after his side's ten-goal thriller against Yokohama F.Marinos.

Bluntly, the Irishman said: “I don’t even know them, to be honest.”

The ex-Leicester City boss insists now is not the time for panic with the start of the season still over three weeks away.

There was more than a bit of dodgy defending as his team went down 6-4 in the blistering Japanese heat.

But the Parkhead gaffer said: “If we won 5-0 it wouldn’t have mattered either. The priority is getting the players ready for when it matters.

"It’s quite a hard ask for the players to arrive late on Monday, adapt to the time, and then play in that heat against a very good team who are well into the season.

"We had some very good moments in the game and scored some good goals.

“We gave away poor goals I wouldn’t expect us to be losing later on in pre-season. It’s still a period we are developing the structure and the fitness.

"It was a really good exercise for us. It was always going to be a challenge, firstly from a physical perspective.”

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