Brendan Rodgers insists Celtic's failure to replace Kyogo won't 'kill my joy'.
The Scottish Premiership champions tried hard to recruit a new striker before last night's 11pm deadline, but fell just short of adding to their squad.
Jeffrey Schlupp was drafted in on loan from Crystal Palace to provide competition for Greg Taylor at left-back with Alex Valle long gone now.
It was a quiet end to the window for the Hoops though, as they missed the chance to bring in a replacement for Kyogo.
🔊 LISTEN: “There’s no doubt the squad is lighter… I don’t want a negative narrative.” 🍀 Brendan Rodgers says he can understand Celtic fans’ frustration after the club failed to sign a striker but insists transfer inactivity will not ‘kill his joy’. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/HqVw8fwvPH
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"We done some really good business in the window," the 52-year-old said. "There were probably one or two things that didn't drop for us the way we would've liked.
"However it ends you know the squad you have and fundamentally we are here to develop the players for the rest of the season that are here.
"There's no doubt that the squad is lighter. I said clearly what we wanted to do. We wanted to have that support at the top end of the field, and we didn't manage to do that. It's a fair enough thing to say.
"You could very easily say that you should've got someone in the door before you let him go but there was a situation with that player which meant that wasn't the case.
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"I said it myself that I wanted another striker so I'm not hiding behind anything. Absolutely, the supporters will look and see there's a top legendary striker going out and we haven't replaced him. So, I understand that.
"Could we have done better? Yeah, we could. However, as I said, we have to work with the players that are here now. I think that is the focus, I don't really want to be looking back. I'm not going to become frustrated now and kill my joy of working here every day at the club by thinking what could've been as we cant affect that now.
"I don't want to put the blame on anyone here. I think as a collective it wasn't ideal how it ended for us, so we have to as a club go away and look at that.
"I go out that door and I still get the same group of the players, players that tomorrow night, if we win our game in hand, we go 13 points clear with 13 games to go. We've won a trophy, we are in the play-off stage of the Champions League.
"We've had a fantastic season up until this point, so I don't want to put any clouds over it there and take a narrative which is negative. This can still be a really positive season, and until this point it's been outstanding. I want to continue with that."
