Snooze and you'll lose when it comes to transfers, Rodgers warns Celtic

Brendan Rodgers has warned that Celtic can’t afford to fall asleep in this transfer window if they’re to kick on in the coming season.

The Northern Irishman confirmed that Paulo Bernardo is on the brink of completing his £3.4million move from Benfica — as Mail Sport first reported.

The 22-year-old Portuguese midfielder, who was on loan as Rodgers’ side won the double last season, will become the club’s third signing of the summer after Kasper Schmeichel and Viljami Sinisalo.

Adam Idah, who joined on loan from Norwich last January, has also inched closer to a permanent move after making it clear to the Carrow Road hierarchy that he wants to go back to Glasgow.

But with a lack of first-team ready players having arrived so far, there is disquiet among some supporters ahead of the start of Celtic’s title defence against Kilmarnock on Sunday.

Clear that he expects that situation to have changed by the time the window closes on August 30, Rodgers said: ‘We still have work to do but, with transfers, there are lots of moving parts. It’s never as easy as just seeing a player and bringing him in.

‘We’d hope by the end of August we will have the team supported in the way we wanted. It’s so important that you don’t snooze in this game of football. You always have to be developing and improving.

‘And we want to ensure that we have an improved squad for this season in order to take on all the challenges that we have.’

Idah is currently the subject of disciplinary action by Norwich after refusing to travel to Austria with the team for a friendly last weekend.

Reluctant to be drawn on whether that meant the Irishman would soon be pictured in a Celtic jersey again, Rodgers said: ‘Well, Adam is a Norwich player. He obviously did fantastically well for us last season and we’ll just see what happens over the course of the coming weeks.’

Matt O’Riley remains a Celtic player despite Atalanta having made three failed bids — the last of which was £15m plus add-ons.

Rodgers is adamant that no player will be allowed to leave the club for less than their market value.

‘No player will leave here unless it’s for the right valuation and, at this moment in time, there has been no team that’s been anywhere near that,’ he said.