“My feeling will be to still to hope to convince Greg to be here,” Brendan Rodgers

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The Celtic Star

·7. Februar 2025

“My feeling will be to still to hope to convince Greg to be here,” Brendan Rodgers

Brendan Rodgers today dismissed reports coming out of Croatia that Greg Taylor has agreed a deal with Celtic’s Champions League group stage opponents Dinamo Zagreb and insisted that he still wants the former Kilmarnock full-back to remain at Celtic…

Greg Taylor. Motherwell v Celtic, 2nd February 2025. Photo by Vagelis Georgariou

Taylor’s concerns about the return of Kieran Tierney

The imminent arrival of Kieran Tierney in the summer is seen as a factor in Taylor’s reluctance to commit to a new deal at Celtic, although there are ongoing financial differences between the player and the club with Greg Taylor not being among the top earners at the team despite his authority in the dressing room as a senior-pro and also on the pitch were he has been the regular Celtic starter at left-back for over five seasons.

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‘Still to hope to convince Greg to be here,’ Brendan Rodgers

“My feeling will be to still to hope to convince Greg to be here. Of course as the longer that goes on that becomes much less but it doesn’t change his professionalism. He is a brilliant professional,” Brendan Rodgers said at today’s media conference. “We will just have to see how the next four months go. I have had a number of open conversations with Greg on it. That (Kieran Tierney’s return) is without doubt an issue.

5th February 2025 Celtic Park, Celtic versus Dundee Arne Engels congratulated after scoring for 1-0 from the penalty spot in the 15th minute by Greg Taylor Photo Action Plus David Young

‘He knows Kieran well’

“He has been a starter here for virtually six years. He’s always had a challenge that he’s overcome from other players coming in. He knows Kieran well and knows his qualities and abilities. But there still can be room for two of them here. There’s absolutely no doubt.

“You are playing upward of 50 games a season and you can’t play one player in all those. I wouldn’t want to because you won’t have the right physicality.

UEFA Champions League Celtic Glasgow vs Young Boys Bern YB Celtic Park Glasgow, Greg Taylor and Alistair Johnston. Photo JOERAN STEINSIEK

‘To have two players of that quality here would be absolutely brilliant for the club’ Brendan Rodgers

“To have two players of that quality here would be absolutely brilliant for the club, team and changing room. That’s the things Greg has to think about. From my perspective I don’t see it as a problem because I know he will play in a lot of big games. He has to decide that for himself. It would be a different role for him.”

Many players have left Celtic and found out that the grass isn’t always greener. Taylor has done brilliantly at Celtic and has won over the fans after his arrival from Kilmarnock to replace a £25m player sold to Arsenal. At first Greg Taylor was something of a whipping boy for the more critical elements of the support but Taylor kept giving his all and certainly is now a popular and valued member of the squad among his teammates and the support.

Greg Taylor training ahead of the Champions League match between Aston Villa and Celtic on 29 January 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

KT is injury prone

He also knows that Kieran Tierney is more injury prone than himself, nor is KT suited to the inverted full back role that Taylor is probably among the best in Britain at playing. Getting 25-30 games each is certainly a worthwhile consideration and Rodgers is not the kind of coach who is going to let him down.

It would be great news if this can be sorted as I, like many Celtic supporters, was disappointed to read the reports from Croatian media that Taylor had already committed to Dinamo Zagreb on a pre-contract.

Greg Taylor of Celtic FC during the UEFA Champions League match between Borussia Dortmund and Celtic FC at the Signal Iduna Park on October. 01, 2024. Photo ANP Sport, Bart Stoutjesdijk

Taylor on the big stage at Celtic

On Wednesday night Celtic will take on Bayern Munich in the knock-out Champions League football. Greg Taylor will most likely be starting at Paradise in front of 60,000 supporters and a huge TV audience around the world. That’s the stage Taylor is losing by failing to agree a deal with Celtic.

As far as the money goes Celtic have rewarded plenty of successful players in recent years with new contracts on improved terms. Why not Greg Taylor who is as worthy as any of the others and has the medals to prove it. He is also a free insurance policy against Kieran Tierney’s injury woes following him up the road. The way to avoid that is to lighten the load on the player and that works best with the plan that Brendan Rodgers is outlining today.

It makes perfect sense.

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