Celtic chiefs hold transfer summit with Dermot Desmond as Tierney plans stay top secret and injury blow lands

Excited Brendan Rodgers met with club power broker Dermot Desmond in Dublin this week to thrash out January transfer plans – remained tight-lipped on the prospect of a reunion with Kieran Tierney.

But the Parkhead gaffer refused to rule out a move while underlining his desire to secure out of contract Greg Taylor on a new deal. He said: "On Tuesday, I flew to Dublin to have a meeting with Dermot, me and Michael and Chris and staff. Just talking about January and what we normally do. Then I got back from that and I watched the B team final. Then obviously back into work. So for the manager and the coaches, we're always looking forward."

The Celtic boss admitted it was inevitable the former fans favourite would be linked with his former club after finding out Arsenal are not going to be giving the full back an extension to his contract. Tierney is free to talk to clubs in January and will be a free agent in the summer – with Celts understood to be keen on exploring the possibility of a return. He added: "We'll always be linked with top players and especially players that are one of us. Kieran was an instrumental part of a really, really successful period when I was here. And his talents then took him on to another challenge in the Premier League. So, yeah, we'll be linked with lots of names. Kieran, obviously, naturally because of his situation. But for us, we'll only ever tell you when we sign a player, once he's signed.”

Rodgers remains hopeful of keeping Taylor beyond the end of this season. He said: “I would hope so. I think I've said it a number of times, he's so important for our squad, Greg. Because when you want to build a squad, it's never just about starters. It's about the whole squad and you want to adapt to