Brendan Rodgers is a hardened Celtic transfer veteran but Beck ambush even caught him by surprise – Keith Jackson

There’s one thing about which Celtic’s fans can feel comforted, now the transfer window is beginning to edge shut at the same time as anxiety levels are starting to rise.

With time running out before the midnight deadline on Thursday, February 1, they can rest assured Brendan Rodgers won’t be reaching for any panic buttons just yet. Rodgers has been in this particular movie more times than he cares to remember over the years and, at the age of 50, he’s experienced enough to acknowledge that, more often than not, patience is an invaluable virtue at this time of year.

On Sunday, moments after he addressed the broadcast media following his side’s 5-0 Scottish Cup battering of little Buckie Thistle, it was left to a band of us from the written brigade to break some awkward news to Celtic’s manager in the corridor outside. Because, pretty much as he was taking his seat behind the microphones, Owen Beck was being subbed on by Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp for the remaining 27 minutes of a 4-0 second half thumping of Bournemouth.

Rodgers didn’t say much. As a matter of fact, he brushed it off with an unconvincing smile and a shrug of the shoulders. But this impromptu ambush did appear at least to take him by surprise, as well it might.

Celtic, after all, had been actively pursuing Beck as a potential January target right up until that very moment. And Record Sport has been told by sources close to the youngster that Beck was more than willing to get around the table to discuss a potential move to Parkhead either on a permanent basis or an initial short term loan.

So Klopp’s decision to name him among Liverpool’s substitutes at the Vitality Stadium came as an unwelcome inconvenience in the first place. And that was compounded when