Greg Taylor new Celtic contract stance made clear by Brendan Rodgers as boss issues 'plan and prepare' warning

Brendan Rodgers has warned that he expects Celtic to get even better than their Champions League dismantling of RB Leipzig.

The Hoops boss dubbed the 3-1 victory over the Bundesliga giants as his best night in Europe across two spells in charge at Parkhead. But he insists there’s still plenty of room for improvement as his side prepare to return to Premiership action away to Kilmarnock on Sunday.

Rodgers, who confirmed he wants to tie Alistair Johnston down on a new deal with Record Sport revealing talks are well down the road, also made clear his desire to extend Greg Taylor’s contract before the full-back is free to talk to other clubs in January. The 27-year-old is seen as a key man of Rodgers plans for the future. And it’s a future that he hopes will see levels rise again on Tuesday’s Leipzig bashing.

He said: “That's always been my mantra with working with teams and, more importantly, working with individuals. No matter what the scorelines we’re winning by, we still have a duty to develop players. So I know that the players will continue to develop. You can't underestimate the confidence that a win like that the other night and the performance in Atalanta in a different way, what that brings to you.

"And I think for the players, just the level was so high with and without the ball and that gives us great confidence going forward. But there's still lots of improvements that the team can make, and the individuals can make and will make over the coming months.”

Rodgers reckons the Leipzig lashing was a performance 16 months in the making. He said: “From Saturday’s performance and getting to the League Cup final was a real statement win for us domestically. But then to go into a game of that magnitude against that level