Celtic Boss Brendan Rodgers Targeting Premier League Duo Before Transfer Deadline Passes

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers is hoping to make three signings as he bids to bolster his squad ahead of this season's predicted title battle with Steven Gerrard's

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers is hoping to make three signings as he bids to bolster his squad ahead of this season's predicted title battle with Steven Gerrard's Rangers, with three England-based stars in his sights.  

As reported by the Daily Mail, the former Liverpool boss wants to sign Leicester's Filip Benkovic, who only arrived at the King Power this summer in a £13m deal from Dinamo Zagreb. 

The Foxes have high hopes for the 21-year-old but are currently unable to give him the game time that he requires, with Wes Morgan, Harry Maguire, Jonny Evans and Caglar Soyuncu all ahead of him in the pecking order. 

Leicester manager talking about Fillip Benkovic
“What I can say about Fillip is, we will see if he has a possibility to go out on loan. But, I’m happy to have this player because he’s talented. We want to continue to develop him, but we have a lot of centre backs” HH pic.twitter.com/y3OJxJKXix

— Celtic Gossip (@CelticGossip) August 30, 2018

The Scottish giants are also chasing Manchester City youngster Douglas Luiz, who is highly rated by Pep Guardiola but has still not been given a work permit to play for the reigning Premier League champions. 

Luiz spent last season on loan at Girona but made just five appearances for the club; given the fact he cannot play him himself, Guardiola is keen to see the Brazil continue his development elsewhere. 

TF-Images/GettyImages

Rodgers' third target is Stoke full back Moritz Bauer, although it remains to be seen whether Gary Rowett would be willing to let the player depart the Championship club. 

Celtic may also have to deal with a major outgoing before Friday's deadline, as star striker Moussa Dembele is being hotly pursued by Lyon. 

The Ligue 1 side have just lost forward Mariano Diaz to Real Madrid and are keen to find a replacement quickly, and have put the French forward at the top of their wishlist. 

Ian MacNicol/GettyImages

Rodgers said: “The situation with Moussa is he had a lot going on.

“Moussa, with his representatives, was at the club today speaking on the situation that has evolved in the last few days. So he didn't train.

“I thought I could work with two strikers in my first season here. With the number of games and competitions we wanted to be in, that proved to be very difficult. So we need three strikers.

“So how it will evolve over the next three days, I'm unsure. But we'll deal with it.”