The season is not over yet for Celtic but Brendan Rodgers is already looking towards the summer transfer window to build a squad capable of competing in Europe.

The Irishman will have the financial resources to buy the players he wants, and Peter Lawwell has backed him up on this.

However, Celtic will not be spending ridiculous amounts of money and will remain taking a sensible approach to transfers. This indicates that the agenda of signing young, hot prospects such as Moussa Dembele may still be the way, along with more experienced players like Scott Sinclair and Kolo Toure.

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Speaking to the Evening Times the Celtic chief executive said:

We are planning to take it on, that is being discussed at the moment. We will see how it goes but we have our targets and hopefully we will be able to get what we want.

We will always be restricted. But the reason we are in this position is how we have ran the club. The reason we could get Brendan was that we had the financial capacity to do it, He wanted to come, of course, but we realistically we were able to give him that opportunity to do that.

That is because of the way we have organised the club for many years so we will continue with that. We will not go mad. It will be the same strategy, the same formula and the beauty in that is that Brendan understands that. We have an outstanding manager and we trust that he can take us forward.

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Celtic are interested in building a squad strong enough to compete in Europe, and going one step further than they did this season in the Champions League or progressing to the latter stages of the Europa League.

It gives the Hoops support great confidence that the board are determined to push the team on further next season and it illustrates that the club have ambition.

Rodgers spoke about the club’s ambitions and said:

You have to be realistic and acknowledge that there is a huge gap between what you can earn as a player in Scotland what you can earn in England,

You need to be aware of that but we are a club who do not need to sell. You always feel that at some point there are certain players who will attract attention from the Premier League in England and you have to be prepared for that and keep the pipeline flowing.

We would be delighted if the window closed and we have kept every one of our players. That is the plan.

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Lawwell continued:

There is nobody banging on our door and saying they have had enough. It might come – it got to the point with Fraser and Virgil that they wanted to go and we understood that. You can only say no so often before you lose them.

Ultimately it sorts itself out. If you have a van Dijk and he is offered four time his salary then obviously it is very difficult to say no all the time because you lose the player. He came here, he developed, he went to Southampton and he looks as though he might get another big move this summer and that proves the point. Victor Wanyama was the same.

We do not have to sell but we have great players who might at some point want to go to the Premier League and when that happens our job is to make sure that we get as much money as we possibly can for them and that we know we have someone else to come in.

The point to players coming here is that Brendan is a big attraction, especially for young players because they can come here and they will get better. The reputation is well deserved that he has.

The Hoops have one more match to play, and it is the biggest of the season.

The Scottish Cup final between Celtic and Aberdeen takes place on Saturday and if the Parkhead side win they will secure an historic treble, and it would be the club’s first since 2001.

Rodgers is firmly focused on this fixture and behind the scenes will be working hard to secure quality players in the summer the transfer window.