Brendan Rodgers sends message to Celtic board as Rangers boss confirms 'puzzling' decision

Celtic continue to lead the Scottish Premiership with a five point lead, with Rangers still holding a game in hand. We could get the most fascinating title race in recent years on the evidence we have seen so far, but plenty of football remains.

Brendan Rodgers' men are in action against Aberdeen away from home early on Saturday, while Rangers take on Livingston later in the day. In the meantime, we have rounded up all the latest news surrounding both clubs.

Rodgers on Celtic business

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has warned that the club must be 'braver' in the transfer market if they want to reassert their dominance over the coming years. "I would go with supporters thinking we could maybe be a little bit braver in terms of bringing in another level of player," he has said. "But that’s up to me to try and fix that over the course of my time here.

"You look at the strategy here and you have to be careful because in some ways it has worked. You bring in players for a minimal fee and then they go out and make the club a lot of money. What I want to hopefully balance in my time here is that we can still do that, because it is an important part of the modern game. But we also want to be brave enough to hang our hat on a ready-made player. So, I totally understand the support, but, likewise, that player has to be available."

Clement on Europa League omissions

Rangers boss Philippe Clement has confirmed who has been left out of his Europa League squad for the knockout stages. “If you look at finding a balance, then Ridvan needs to be in,” he said. “You need two full-backs – that was a problem in the first round. If there was a problem with Borna Barisic, we didn’t have any left-back.

“That was a difficult point on that European list that I have submitted today. Sam Lammers is out, so Fabio Silva is in. That’s logical. Cifu (Cifuentes) is probably out so Diomande comes in instead of him. Ridvan (Yilmaz) will come on the list so that means Leon Balogun, Kieran Dowell and Cortes cannot be on the list. That hurts me.

“We have been puzzling for hours with the staff these past few days and you always come to the same conclusions. You cannot keep the balance unless you make these changes."