Brendan Rodgers Discussion Thread

What Ange has over Rodgers though is that he took over the club when it was actually on the back foot, 2nd best and the squad was a mess. Rangers were probably the strongest they had been in a decade. The transformation job Ange did that year to rebuild the team, win back the title and follow it up with a treble was probably the most impressive of the last 2 decades or so. A lot of people saying that if we complete the treble this year it will be our best season since Seville. But Id argue Anges first season in charge was the most important.

 

I wasn't happy with how he left, and thought his football had gotten tedious after season one but the football has been excellent this year. So wasn't sure about his appointment. It's been fun to watch this season though, we've held our own against some big teams in Europe. I really think some people just need to let it go.

 

If he manages a win next week then I'd be more than happy to let any lingering resentments go.

 

I wasn’t happy with how he left, but more has came to light around that that does go some way to explaining it more and the challenges he faced. But take his name away, any manager we get that delivers the level of success he has had in both spells, as well as the advances in Europe, a double this season and looking good for a treble, the clear ambition to push on in Europe….you couldn’t really ask for better. Bout time he has the full backing, even during the * games. It’s impossible to be drubbing teams 5-0 every single game, blips and downturns are natural, but he has always had us responding. Nothing but credit from me. Just make sure we batter these hun * next week, and draw a line under the gap.

 

For those who still are mad with him just let it go. He is officially a club legend and easily one of the greatest ever Celtic managers. The success he have brought to this football club is out of this world.

The club is made for him. He loves the club and its good to have a manager with such "ego/self belief" as a club of our nature feeds guys like him.

 

No Celtic fan should have a problem with Brendan now. He is doing a fine job and I think he will do even better next season. He cares deeply for our beloved Club and his job you could clearly feel that in the interviews straight after clinching the title.

 

I wish people would stop with the suggestions that we were 2nd best to rangers when they won that title... It was a perfect storm of things going wrong for us, and right for them, that got them that title... Ange did brilliant to correct the blip, and strengthen again, but we were extremely unlikely not to rebound given how lowly we/the whole spfl had performed and how fortunate they'd been.

That year was a truly needed tonic of reality, delivered at the worst possible time for us, that matches/seasons need to be earned, they're not just handed out. But we had the complete infrastructure in place to respond to it. In honesty, if it hadn't been for the exceptional circumstances of that year we'd probably have replaced Lenny before the end and have been on our correction before the season ended.

We are an absolute machine behind the scenes, as recognised by almost every authority of note who really know the game. Only our league status stops us being one of the greatest teams in the world. Rangers are a pipedream, bag of cats, held together with duct tape...

 

We were second best to Rangers that year by some distance - thats the reality. Lets not pretend we werent. Easy to say we would always have bounced back the next season irrespective. But we were 20 odd points worse off than them in the league with a squad that needed an overhaul. We were losing to Rangers regularly and they had a far stronger team than the one Rodgers had faced in first stint. I dont really think going into Anges season that the fanbase were taking it as a given we would win the league. The momentum was firmly with Rangers.

Yes, we are far better run club than Rangers - no argument there. But the challenge Ange faced the season he came in was far tougher than what Rodgers has had to face here by comparison.

 

I argued it at the time that people were massively overreacting to the league loss, although somewhat understandable, and that any competent and capable manager would have put us back on the front foot... We average around the low 90 point mark in our usual campaigns, and the Huns around high 80s... That season was an absolute blip on the norm...

Look, I'm not saying they didn't trounce us that year, but it was an absolutely bizarre year, with all that could go wrong for us doing so, and everything that could go right for them doing so... That Ange turned out to also be a top manager was just a cherry on top...

Anyway, that's my opinion, I'm sure it's different from others and you're perfectly entitled to yours... Personally, I think that if the other spfl teams stopped believing the Hun hype they'd drop to not much better than a Hearts or Aberdeen... Our main opponent is ourselves!

 

I mean, we could argue how good Rangers were / were not when Ange came in. But I think we can agree they were substantially better than they had been when Rodgers was here.

Rodgers first stint Pedro / Murty Rangers were at McKinnes Aberdeen standard. Getting 60-70pts per season. When Ange arrived they had the highest wage build in Scotland, had gone unbeaten for a season and would come within a penalty shoot out of winning the Europa League the following season. Thats not evening factoring in the job Ange had to do to overhaul a squad that was badly in need of a rebuild and had lost their captain. To overturn that in the space of a season was for me, the most impressive of the 14 titles and counting. Happy to disagree of course and Im sure others will, but the point Im really making is that Ange had a tougher set of circumstances to win his trophies than Rodgers did.

 

It was an amazing season, especially when you think CCV and Jota didn't come in right until the end of the end of the window with O'Riley, Maeda and Hatate not joining until January. We lost our first 3 away games and then didn't lose another game all season. * knows how we did it. We had to bring in almost a whole new team.

Line up for game against Hearts at the start of the season (refs still had to cheat us though).
Bain
Taylor
Bitton
Starfelt
Ralston
McGregor
Soro
Turnbull
Abada
Forrest
A checked out Eddy


Despite that there definitely was an anomaly with the previous season. The only first team squad players to leave the huns in 21-22 was Defoe and Patterson. Neither starters though. They brought players in despite that. They lost in the CL qualifiers, were losing games all season. But we were so poor 20-21 that they didn't have to go unbeaten really, 70-odd points for second place is poor (most Huns can get this season is 79). I think that season we were of similar quality to the huns this year. Bad tactics, players who didn't want to be here and Johnny Kenny. So I think we definitely catch up no matter what and put up a fight.

 

Christ it is actually hard to close your eye's and imagine that team as a starting 11

 

Dear lord that is a * lineup lol

 

I think he had already set the score back to zero by winning the double last season. That first summer window was one of the worst windows I've ever seen and I'm convinced that a lesser manager wouldn't have won the league. I had already forgiven him and moved on before this season started.

This season has been really good. We are potentially just one win away from our best season since Seville IMO. If he gets that over the line, he's back to being a legend for me.

We've got to really back him this summer to a level we never have before. If we don't, he will (correctly) conclude that he has achieved as much as he ever can or will here and it will be his last season for us.

 

Brendan Rodgers says his side have been “too comfortable” going into the last two games against Rangers and insists the newly crowned champions will be out to make up for lost pride when they go across the city this weekend.

The Ibrox side have won the last two league encounters between the sides, albeit when Celtic already had a commanding lead at the top of the Premiership.

They meet for the fifth and final time this season on Sunday, with both sides on two wins each, and the Hoops boss is aiming to give his supporters some extra cheer following last Saturday’s title party.

He said: “This is a game that is all about pride, we have proved ourselves over the course of the season in terms of our performance levels and consistency.

“I think the challenge in these games is that we have been so comfortable going into the games and I feel that has really disrupted our mindset.

“When it was win or bust in the cup final, we won it because we had to and that’s it


Celtic won 3-0 at Parkhead in the first meeting between Glasgow’s big two before lifting the League Cup trophy after a dramatic penalty shoot-out victory at Hampden.

But since then the derbies have been in Rangers’ favour with a 3-0 win at Ibrox then a 3-2 win in the East End of the city in March.

Rodgers has put the last two down to subconscious complacency, but insists they will be all guns blazing on Sunday.

He said: “The last two league games we have been too comfortable going into them, and even though you’re pushing what these games mean, and I know how much they mean to the supporters, to myself and to the club, there can still be that little bit in the back of the mind when you are so far clear and that can take a fraction of an edge off.

“You never want that, but there is maybe a subconscious thing there.



But this time it is our last game against our biggest rivals, we are fighting for the pride of our team and for our supporters, because we lost the last game at Ibrox, and deservedly so.

“We shouldn’t have lost the game at home, but we did, and we now have to make that right in the last game.”

Rodgers also revealed that Alistair Johnston will miss the game, with Jota also ruled out for up to nine months and Nicolas Kuhn is a doubt

 

Traditionalist Brendan Rodgersadmits he would like to see Rangers respect their title win with a guard of honour but admits it’s a “challenge” for the Light Blues because they have been second so often


Who's next up to troll the hun *?

 

Brendan Rodgers has shared that the current Celtic manager's position is the job that has carried the 'biggest pressure' in his career.


The Irishman insists that it is unacceptable for a club like Celtic to even lose a game when you are the manager of the club.

However, the 52-year-old admits that he loves the relentlessness of it all and the 24/7 nature of the pursuit of silverware and success.

Rodgers guided Celtic to their 55th title in their history against Dundee United last weekend, and he stands 90 minutes away from securing a third domestic clean sweep as a manager.

Aberdeen stand in Rodgers' way of clinching a record third 'treble' in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden Park on Saturday, May 24.

As a manager it is a feat that even club legends like Jock Stein and Martin O'Neill did not deliver.


Rodgers said: "This is the biggest pressure job I've been in, and that's because you cannot afford to lose a game of football.

"So, you imagine any team that's out there, they'll get a pass for a draw, they'll get a pass for a win. Sometimes we don't even get a pass for a win. We can win and get booed off.

"So, that's the relentless nature of it, and that's what I love about the job. The expectation, the support base, is to always be better, to always improve and that drives you forward. So, you know you can never just rest on your laurels here at Celtic.

"So, that means that every single day of your life, you have to be on it. You have to be really focused, you have to be prepared, you know that the other team you're playing against are going to give that extra 10-15% physically, mentally, because every time you operate as a Celtic player and manager, you're managing a final scenario. So, that is there in virtually every game.

"So, to prepare the team, to prepare the trainings and the practice and the schedule and everything else that goes with that, to deal with that pressure, to leave you in the best possible position when you play your game, then it's not straightforward.

"There are lots of teams that have good resources in other leagues and throughout the world, but they don't necessarily win all the time. Yes, we've got really good resources here, but we haven't been handed money.

"This is all generated through a model of work in the club, by our supporters, buying merchandise, everything is organic here at the Football Club, and then of course, my job is to look after the core performance of the team.

"It's not easy, it's a highly pressurised situation in which you have to perform every single game and to be at that level, then that's how you train, that mentality has to be in training. So, when you have that every day, you have no rest days."

Rodgers reckons that even some of the best players who come into the club can struggle to cope in an environment where the culture of winning is the be-all and end-all.

However, Rodgers believes that he works better when the pressure is on, and he feels that he constantly has to prove himself in his managerial role.

He said: "That's why you see players come here, some really good players, but they struggle because the mentality to survive within it, it's a real challenge, and players will be really good players.

"Even at Celtic, I've seen other players come up to Scotland before thinking, we'll come to Scotland, it's quite easy, you play for one of the big teams, you'll be ok. No, the demands are totally different.

"Then you can leave and go back into the Premier League and do really well and be a good player in the Premier League.

"The difference is pressure, dealing with pressure and at Celtic, and Rangers for that matter, there's massive pressure.

"I think I need that challenge, especially at this period in my career and what I've experienced now. I can be no good if I'm uncomfortable, and I would never get to be that in here. I think it's something that I thrive on, I enjoy that, and I enjoy the challenge.

"Last season, it was clearly tighter and there were lots of things being questioned of you and whatever else.

"So, I enjoy that challenge of proving people wrong, and there will always be something else to improve or prove in the role. So, if I don't have it, I find it from somewhere, and that's what allows me to be the best I can be

 

Did Rangers or Celtic ever do a guard of honour for one another before Deadco died? Does other teams do it at their own discretion?