Brendan Fraudgers!

https://www.snsgroup.co.uk/27-10-17-brendan-rodgers-photocall

 

"And here's the part where Pedro said he had the best squad in Scotland"

 

Looks a good set up. Hopefully everyone has a good evening at it.

 

Probably getting pumped rotten by her strictly dance partner

 

BRENDAN Rodgers tells the story of his Road To Paradise in his autobiography, which is out now. And the Celtic manager will also be in conversation with TV broadcaster and personality and fellow countryman, Eamonn Holmes, in two special events in Glasgow tonight (Friday) on Belfast (Wednesday, November 1).

The book charts the manager’s journey from his childhood in the village of Carnlough on the Antrim coast through to becoming manager of the team he has always supported and leading them to a historic invincible treble-winning success.

In this exclusive extract from The Road To Paradise, Brendan Rodgers talks about the demands of the Celtic job and how, even as he and his team celebrated their historic treble success last season, he was already looking ahead in order to ensure that success continues…

‘As the Celtic manager you’re carrying the expectations and dreams of millions of people, and it’s something you can’t be frightened of. You have to be able to redirect the pressures of that in a positive way and know that, if success happens as a consequence of what you do, you accept it.

‘I always feel if you stay in the moment and focus on what you can affect, then it’s going to give you a great chance of achieving what you set out to do. Inherently, I’m always looking for improvement and always looking to push on, to be better, and in modern football now you can never afford to relax. I don’t feel secure in my job, still. It doesn’t matter what we did last year, I don’t feel secure in it, and so I’m always thinking about how I can be better in order to be here for a period of time.

‘In the week after the Scottish Cup final, I was actually thinking, ‘Right, how do we prepare for the pitfalls of success? What do I need to do to prepare us for that because this feeling is going to be around for a while?’

‘What was important was to come into the new season with a ruthless simplicity. It’s too late if you start the season and then talk about being ruthless. When you’re the leader, you have to shape the group and the group’s mentality for the next season, so that was already well underway in my mindset, even before we reported back for pre-season training.

‘It was a monumental achievement to win the treble, and to do so without losing a single game, and it’s been a pleasure to be up here. The league has been fantastic and very competitive and the cup competitions have been tough. The players had to be at their best and that’s why I push them in training every day.

'We’d come through the league campaign unbeaten and the Scottish Cup final was always going to be really challenging, but we made it. It took a few days to sink in but the sense of achievement, and the scale of it, is still huge.

‘It’s one where, when I’m long gone, my kids and grandkids have got somewhere to go where my name might be mentioned.’

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/Melfyx/status/923988652727898112/video/1

 

So the book is out now, has anyone read it? If they have, is it a good read?

 

Met chance Eamonn being pumped aff Anton than Ruth me thinks....

 

Think it comes out tomorrow.

 

Golfer Stephen Gallacher at the event

 

Great night....really enjoyed it..
Could listen to the man all night

 

There are two key motivating factors behind the success of Brendan Rodgers, the man who led Celtic to an "invincible" treble - his mother and his father.

The former Liverpool manager's relationship with his parents is the unmistakeable thread that weaves its way through the new book that documents his road to becoming boss at his boyhood heroes.

"They lost their lives too early and I would be nothing without them," said the 44-year-old.

The determination and drive that's shaped his career comes from their memory but not necessarily from their genes.

Both of his parents died in their 50s after a life spent working hard and raising a family in the village of Carnlough in County Antrim.

"My father was a really nice man but the one thing he would probably say if he was alive is that he probably waited for too many things," says Rodgers.

"Even if he did a job, he didn't like asking for the money. He was always waiting for the good nature of people to bring him things and I always remember thinking as a youngster that I was never going to be like that.


"I always thought that if I was going to be successful, I was going to have to go and get it myself.

"I learned growing up and saw too many struggles they had when they relied on other people, and from then I was determined that whatever happened in my life, I was going to create it."

He created a life in coaching for himself after injury cut short his dreams of becoming a successful player.

His autobiography - "Brendan Rodgers: The Road to Paradise" - touches on his success at Swansea and his time in charge of Liverpool.

Sacked after four seasons in charge at Anfield, Rodgers discusses his need for a physical and mental break from the game.

"I had an incident when I left Liverpool. Within a couple of weeks I went to Dubai and I lay in fear one night that I was having a heart attack," he recalls.

"I suppose my mum's situation maybe came over me because she died suddenly of a heart attack.

"I was rushed into the hospital. I was looked after great and it was basically a reaction to the body, the tightening of everywhere in and around my chest.

"It was starting to condition itself in terms of not having that pressure, so that was something that really made me sit up."

He says he has learned to deal with pressures and with the attention.

At 39, he was thrust into the world of fly-on-the-wall TV in his first year as manager of Liverpool.

A film crew was tasked with catching a behind-the-scenes, warts-and-all look at the life at a football club.

Much has been made of a particular scene from Rodgers' home that showed a large painting of the man himself.


The perception of vanity it may have created clearly irked the Irishman.

"It was something that I never really wanted to do and probably in hindsight, it should never have been put onto a manager - especially a young manager," he says of the programme.

"There's a perception that can be built around something like that but of course the reality and the story behind it is somewhat different."

The painting was actually produced and presented to him by a group of disabled children in Swansea.

He jokes: "I'm a rough Irishman, you try to be as presentable as you can!

"But it was more the disappointment and the notion behind that. I was proud of it to be up there because of them doing it.

"It wasn't me putting it up there because it's me, but if people did come into the house and they see it, there's a story behind it."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41784421






















Brendan Rodgers has revealed Celtic approached him to replace Ronny Deila as manager of the club before the Norwegian clinched the 2015/16 title and vacated his role.

While it may sound like an inappropriate move by the Parkhead hierarchy, the Northern Irishman says it was in fact the most professional approach possible.

Celtic announced Deila would stand down from his position on April 20, 2016, after two seasons in charge of the club.

With the title still up for grabs, five-in-row was not clinched until two-and-a-half weeks later, when Celtic beat Aberdeen 3-2 at home.

It was another two weeks before Rodgers was confirmed as Deila's successor and he says it was the ideal way for the club to deal with the procedure.

"I had interest from a few clubs and I then got a call to say 'listen, Ronny is leaving and Peter Lawwell would like to have a chat with you,'" he exclusively told STV ahead of the launch of his new autobiography.

"So I waited for the call and he rang, and explained Ronny was leaving.

"But what I also thought was it was very professional because he asked if we could hold off on speaking because they were still concentrating on making sure the league was won.

"I think if they had won then afterwards we would set a date. I thought at the time, OK, I'm a Celtic supporter so let's go and speak to Peter and Dermot [Desmond]."

https://stv.tv/sport/football/1400938-rodgers-celtic-approached-me-before-deila-left-his-role/

 

I think with Brendan confirming we approached him early shows he was always no1 choice and we interviewed others as a back and/or distraction for media’s and the ITK brigade

 

The club from top to bottom gives off an air of professionalism. Conducts itself appropriately & has a very successful financial model. Second to that, one of the best (imo) scouting systems in Europe. Reinvesting the CL money to consolidate our position, with investments at Lennox Town & phase I of a new pitch at Celtic Park complete.
Redevelopment around the ground & Celtic Way look brilliant & the impending hotel Celtic museum will only had another stream of finance to an already profitable portfolio.
The professionalism is an ethos that runs throughout the club down to the Colts & their coaches.
Desmond & Lawell have surrounded themselves with people who know their jobs & who are good at it.
The Arsenal wanted Lawell, (probably to rebuild after Wenger!) but I think he must feel he has unfinished business in Glasgow.
I believe everything behind the scenes is very nearly in place. The seeds are planted so to speak, now the boys with jobs have to nurture these young talents through the colt & development system & hopefully Celtic will alone it seems, continue to be the backbone of the Scottish National team.
We are in, as one sports finance expert called it in a ‘upward cycle’ . He further says if Celtic can get the CL group stages annually they will enter a period of ‘permanent upward cycle’. This is obviously great news for Hoops fans, & it gets better. There’s more. Conversely, Sevco who are in a period of ‘downward cycle’ & any sustained period of CL money by Celtic will undoubtedly (this may already have happened in real terms) push them into ‘permanent downward cycle’ mode. If they don’t commit economic financial suicide again, they will ultimately settle into a relatively well supported mid table team. Success will become extremely rare as teams like Aberdeen/Hibs/Hearts will jockey with them for minor prizes & continue to take points off each other but none having a dramatic effect on Celtic. Sevco fans will only learn to celebrate defeats of Celtic by other teams, their own team is incapable of doing it & this reveals the acceptance,psycholigally, of their demise from what was a two horse race. Sevco then, as an entity exist, but barring a Qatari billionaire moving in, they will begin to shrink both in impotrtance & stature, crowds will probably drop to around the 20-25k level, & as is becoming the norm already, they will spend the future CL nights watching grainy John Greig reruns & sing songs about a history that as long past & is gaining more & more irrelevancy as the years go by.
Looking back is fine, the two horse race (when fair). was fine too but I am actually loving this one horse show jumping exhibition. Thanks you Celtic F.C.

 

The night flew by, great to listen to a few good laughs too. Only downside was the * shutting the bar

 

Brendan Rodgers has told how Danny McGrain asked the Celtic boss if he still wanted him at the club when he joined.

Brendan Rodgers said: “My PA told me Danny McGrain wanted to see me and I was thinking ‘Wow, Danny McGrain!’.”

BR: “I got in and everyone was wearing their Celtic kits for training but Danny wasn’t.”


BR: “So he said to me ‘Hi boss, pleasure to meet you’ and I said ‘Danny, the pleasure’s mine’.”


BR: “Then he said to me ‘I wanted to know if you still want me here. I didn’t want to get changed until I knew you wanted me here.”

BR: “I couldn’t believe it. I said ‘as long as I’m here, you are.’”

https://mobile.twitter.com/CelticBible