White Smoke over Paradise – Welcome Back Brendan
By Editor 19 June, 2023 1 Comment
“Welcome back, Brendan! Celtic FC is delighted to announce that Brendan Rodgers has been appointed the Club’s new Football Manager on a three-year contract. Let’s get to work!”
The club’s tweet we have all been waiting for has just been posted.
On the club’s official website there are more details on the deal and we also know that it’s a three year deal Brendan has signed and that Ange Postecoglou has failed in his attempts to take the Celtic coaching staff to Tottenham with him, with John Kennedy staying at Celtic to be Brendan’s Assistant manager while Gavin Strachan and Harry Kewell also remain at the club as will Stevie Woods, Stephen McManus and Darren O’Dea.
Here’s the Celtic statement in full…
“Celtic Football Club is delighted to announce that Brendan Rodgers has been appointed the club’s new Football Manager on a three-year contract. Brendan previously managed the club to phenomenal success, winning consecutive domestic Trebles and in addition delivering the most famous of Invincible seasons.
In recent years, Brendan has led Leicester City to victory in the FA Cup for the first time in their history, also achieving fifth position in the English Premier League on two occasions. Brendan has also held managerial positions at Liverpool, Swansea City, Watford and Reading.
We are also pleased to confirm that John Kennedy, who has served the club over many years in a playing and coaching capacity, will support Brendan as the club’s Assistant Manager, along with first-team coaches Stevie Woods, Gavin Strachan and Harry Kewell, and B Team coaches Stephen McManus and Darren O’Dea.
New Celtic manager, Brendan Rodgers said: “I am really delighted to return to Celtic and I am hugely excited by this great opportunity. When I was given the privilege of being asked to join the club again, it was a very simple decision for me and my family.
“We have enjoyed some great times at Celtic before and this will be my goal again, to deliver good football, ensure we have a team we all love to watch and ultimately bring more success to our fans.
“Ange has done some brilliant work across the last two years and I will be doing all I can to maintain Celtic’s momentum as we face into all our domestic and European challenges. We have a hugely impressive and talented group of players and staff at the club, and I am really looking forward to meeting up with them all and then getting straight down to work.
“I wanted John to be with me as we move forward. He is a very talented coach, someone I know well and respect and he will be very important to myself and our players. The club is in fantastic condition at all levels and I would like to thank the board for putting their trust in me to take the team forward. We will work very closely together as we strive to bring that success to our supporters.
“Let’s get to work!”
Celtic’s Chief Executive, Michael Nicholson added: “We are delighted to welcome Brendan as our new manager. He is a football manager of real quality and experience, with an established track record of delivering success.
“The role of Celtic manager is attractive and highly-sought after, and in the process we considered many potential candidates. In appointing Brendan, we are confident that we have identified the best candidate for Celtic. Having spoken to Brendan and discussed the club’s strategy and objectives with him, I can see the passion he has for taking the club forward positively and building on what we have achieved.
“We look forward to working together to deliver growth and success for Celtic and our supporters.”
Peter Lawwell, Chairman of Celtic said: “Through the process of identifying the new Celtic manager, it was clear that Brendan was the outstanding choice and we are absolutely delighted that we have appointed him on a long-term contract. We wanted a proven winner and that’s what Brendan is, and myself and everyone else at the club look forward to working with him again to continue to drive Celtic forward.
“He is someone who knows the club so well and has experience of the huge challenges at Celtic, domestically and in Europe. Brendan is well aware of what it takes to succeed in this role and we know he is delighted to be back with us. Brendan is a top-quality Manager. He has delivered before for Celtic and we are sure through his many qualities, he will do so again.”
Dermot Desmond, Celtic’s principal shareholder added: “Our aim at Celtic will always be to bring individuals of the highest calibre to the club to achieve our objectives, and in appointing Brendan we believe we have again brought that quality to the club.
“Brendan is a very talented manager, he has huge experience at the highest levels and is a man who knows how to win and do so in style. As we enter another exciting period for the club I am sure he will tackle the opportunities ahead with his characteristic focus, drive and determination.
“We have all enjoyed great success across recent years, Brendan himself being a huge part of that. I know Brendan is determined to deliver again for our supporters and collectively, the board, management, players and staff will support him in this aim.”
Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic return: Manager has it all to prove in second spell
By Tom EnglishBBC Scotland
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65905895
Last updated on
19 June 202319 June 2023.From the section Celtic
Brendan Rodgers holds the Scottish Premiership trophy
Brendan Rodgers won seven trophies during his first spell at Celtic
Whether Celtic folk see it as the return of the prodigal son or the reappointment of the shameless one, Brendan Rodgers is on his way back.
His dream job, remember. “A way of life…the ultimate…a truly great football club…one of the iconic clubs of the world…the greatest in the world.”
Rodgers will bring nous and charisma. It will not be dull, not for one millisecond.
When he speaks later in the week it’s hard to know if he’ll have the trowel he used to lay on the shtick in his first spell and, if he does, what impact those words will have on the support this time around.
“I was born into Celtic” might not work so well a second time after the bitterness and rancour he left behind when upping and leaving for Leicester in the spring of 2019.
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Much of the reaction to his exit among Celtic fans back then was weary disappointment but among the extreme minorities there was also horrible anger.
In the days and weeks after he departed it was impossible to envisage a comeback, not even to watch a game not to mind to manage the club again, which would have seemed like an outlandish concept.
But here we are with Rodgers restored. Fans who slammed him are now contorting themselves. The language has been tempered. Old grievances have been parked, for now. Frankly, even Lazarus would be gobsmacked with the way this has played out.
Celtic’s logic in bringing him back is obvious. He’s the closest thing they can get to a surefire winner, so expedience rules.
With Rodgers, as opposed to anybody else who has been linked with the job, there is a higher chance of success. And success tends to soothe all ills, even the ire of the angriest Rodgers critic will be doused if his team continues the work of Ange Postecoglou and tears it up.
Domestic landscape ‘more challenging’
Some of the stuff that Celtic played under Rodgers was exceptional. He won all the trophies, dominated the landscape, lorded it over proceedings like a king on his throne.
But, if he’s coming back, context needs to be applied to what he did before and what he’s going to have to improve on now.
The fact is that Rodgers inherited a champion team and existed in deeply favourable times. Rangers were a shambles, lurching from Mark Warburton to Pedro Caixinha to Graeme Murty and then Steven Gerrard. In Rodgers’ two full seasons at Celtic Park, Aberdeen finished second.
What we remember primarily from Rodgers at Celtic is the ‘invincible’ season of 2016-17, a campaign of genuine class.
We don’t necessarily recall with the same kind of clarity the following campaign which saw Celtic win the title with 82 points which, outside of the Covid-curtailed season of 2019-20, is the second-lowest winning total in almost a quarter of a century. Celtic dropped points in 14 league games that season.
In his final season, Rodgers lost league games to Hearts, Kilmarnock, Hibs and Rangers and dropped more points against St Mirren, Livingston and Motherwell. They had a points-per-game return of 2.3 which was putting him on course for a title-winning total of 87 had he stayed (Neil Lennon took over and Celtic did, indeed, finish on 87 points). That’s the joint-sixth lowest title-winning total since the turn of the millennium.
Postecoglou’s numbers routed those of Rodgers in those two seasons. Indeed, Rangers’ total in finishing second in 2021-22 and 2022-23 was higher than in two of Rodgers’ two and three-quarter seasons.
Postecoglou took over a mess, rebuilt an entire team and won his titles with 93 points and 99 points. And he did it with a much stronger closest rival than Rodgers ever had. Postecoglou will be a hard act to follow.
Rodgers will find the domestic landscape more challenging than before. He’s a terrific manager and you’d expect him to add considerably to Celtic’s trophy haul, but it won’t be so easy this time.
Celtic fans knock great fun out of mocking their city rivals but Rangers are way stronger now than they ever were during Rodgers’ first stint.
Work to do in Europe
What’s in it for Rodgers? Coming back to Glasgow to win trophies he’s already won multiple times has the look of an aging rocker on a revival tour.
The league is the non-negotiable but for him, it’s not just about domestic football. It never was.
He sees himself as someone who can make a mark on Europe, given a decent budget. That’s part of the reason why he felt he could do no more at Celtic the last time.
He wouldn’t contemplate coming back unless he felt his odds of doing something in the Champions League or Europa League were reasonable.
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The fact that Celtic are guaranteed group stage football in the Champions League would not have been enough of a draw for Rodgers unless there was enough backing to make something happen in Europe. He’s been a Champions League whipping boy before and it wasn’t fun.
A promise of more cash to spend on a tilt at Europe must have been made to him or else it’s hard to see why he would come back. What that number looks like is something we’ll only get an angle on when he see the ambition of his signings.
Rodgers’ record in group stage and subsequent knockout European games is poor. Three wins from eight with Liverpool in 2012-13, two from eight in 2014-15 and zero from two in 2015-16.
He won five from 22 with Celtic and 10 from 22 with Leicester, albeit he made the semi-final of the Conference League in 2021-22, a competition he said he hadn’t heard of until he was about to compete in it.
An overall record of 20 wins from 62 group and knockout games is a significant blot on the record of a manager who has achieved many excellent things in his career. The memory of some of the hidings he suffered at Celtic against the European elite – and not so elite – will not have faded.
One compelling question, among many, is whether he can do anything about it. The ‘dream job’ stuff, the rhetoric about ‘walking across broken glass to get to Celtic Park’ has had its time. He might find a more demanding and less forgiving public now. Talk, as every Celtic fan now knows, is cheap. For a manager who has done a lot, he has it all to prove.
Brendan Rodgers: Celtic manager ‘guarantees’ three-year spell on return
Last updated on
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66001365
23 June 202323 June 2023.From the section Celtic
Celtic: Brendan Rodgers first time round – the highlights
New manager Brendan Rodgers has given a “guarantee” he will be at Celtic for the duration of his three-year deal, unless he “gets emptied before that”.
Rodgers left Celtic to the ire of some supporters midway through the 2018-19 season, having won seven out of seven trophies since 2016. He subsequently enjoyed FA Cup success with Leicester City before being sacked in April.
“As a Celtic supporter, I understood what it meant. So that was my regret, that I hurt Celtic supporters and it’s a big part of coming back,” he said.
“Hopefully in time, I can give you that feeling I gave you the first time. I don’t expect anything, but if I get that support, great.
“For those who doubt, I’ve had that all my career so I will continue to work hard and hopefully a team that plays with the commitment people will enjoy. It will just take time.
“I’ve signed for three years and I guarantee I’ll be here for three years unless I get emptied before that, as they say up here.”
The 50-year-old Northern Irishman inherits a Celtic squad that have won five of the past six available major Scottish trophies, including all three in 2022-23.
And Rodgers disclosed that he had “exchanged messages” with predecessor Ange Postecoglou, who left for Tottenham Hotspur in June after winning a treble, and spoken at length to John Kennedy, who will remain as his assistant.
“My whole plan was to have a year out and reset again but once I spoke to guys at the club and looked a little bit more deep into where the club was at, it was then pretty straightforward,” he said.
“The club’s in a fantastic place and it made me really excited. It wasn’t a nostalgic move but I had a amazing time when I was here but I’m here to win going forward.”
Rodgers on signings…
“It’s a good time to strengthen whenever you have done well. It’s not going to be lots of numbers.
“Over the last couple of years they have built a squad, so it’s a case of developing that and adding quality where we can. I’m really excited with the players here because it’s a young squad and there’s still a lot of growth in that.”
Rodgers on Europe…
“We’ll look to have European football after Christmas. We all know the challenges of the Champions League. If you can get through to the knockout stages, that’s a big step for a Scottish team.
“But there are competitions now, with a bit of luck and quality, it can allow you to go a long way.”
Rodgers on Rangers & Michael Beale…
“All you can do is beat the opposition that is in front of you. Michael is a coach I know from back in the day at Chelsea, and then at Liverpool, so I have known him over a period of time and he is an excellent coach.
“But my focus will clearly be on Celtic, improving us as a team will be my thought process every minute of the day.”
Rodgers on his backroom team
“I’ve always felt that coming back here, it was going to be really important for John [Kennedy] to be here.
“He knows how I work. He knows the rhythm of my days. He’s an incredible worker, he’s a great football man, he has the respect of the players, he has respect for all the staff.”
line
BBC Scotland were denied access to the media conference.
In a statement, they said: “We’re sorry that Celtic did not allow us to access today’s media event. We are in discussions with the club in an effort to resolve the situation.”
BBC Scotland News has asked Celtic for comment and is awaiting a response.
Brendan Rodgers admits ‘suppressing’ Celtic hurt as he opens up on redemption bid and Ange Postecoglou
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/celtic/brendan-rodgers-admits-suppressing-celtic-hurt-as-he-opens-up-on-redemption-bid-and-ange-postecoglou-4384230
The easy line is that Champions League nights against heavyweights such as Atletico Madrid are the reason Brendan Rodgers dared accept the highest-possible risk Celtic comeback.
Andrew Smith
By Andrew Smith
Published 24th Oct 2023, 22:30 BST
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It fails to recognise the depth of the redemption motive for the Irishman’s June return. A desire to be recognised by future generations of the club’s faithful as a figure with feelings for Celtic who made good as manager. Feelings that hold more powerful sway than any solitary spectacle. Even the senses-assaulting generated by Diego Simeone’s team pitching up at Parkhead on Wednesday evening. Alright, somehow ending the club’s 10 year, 11 home encounters, wait for a victory at this elite level would nudge Rodgers towards statue status. A matter of months after the only effigies a considerable section of the Celtic support would have crafted were likenesses in which to stick pins. But there is a sense Sunday at Tynecastle represented a more significant staging post on the journey he sought to embark on when he agreed to a second stint in charge. An opportunity presented as a consequence of Tottenham Hotspur luring away Ange Postecoglou.
An English Premier League post of promise proving irresistible to the Australian did not result in him being presented as treacherous by the fanbase with which he cuts ties in the fashion that befell Rodgers in 2019. His departure for Leicester City three months before he could complete a triple treble provoking a depth of hatred from a spurned support it seemed certain would forever poison their associations. Now, though, a lancing appears underway as his 2023 side begin to exhibit the footballing finesse that made them an unstoppable domestic force in his two-and-three-quarter years from the summer of 2016.
In this context, the 4-1 mauling dished out to Hearts at the weekend felt as significant for a song as much as his team’s swish – the serenading of him by the 569 Celtic fans at full-time the first time he has earned such appreciation in his second tour of duty. Not lost on Rodgers was the “irony” represented by this reaction when Tynecastle also happened to be the scene of Celtic’s first game subsequent to his Leicester flit in February 2019. And an enduring memory of it proved the unfurling of a banner by the Green Brigade – locked out by the club the other day over recent misdemeanours – that declared of Rodgers: ‘you traded immortality for mediocrity; never a Celt, always a fraud’.
“But listen, it’s all about winning games,” he said, maintaining the banner from 2019 wasn’t on his mind as he savoured Sunday’s performance with the Celtic section. “However long I’m here, and whatever we win, everyone may not be onside. That’s okay. As long as the team gets the support then that’s really most important. Of course, when you have that connection, like I had the first time when I was here, then it brings everything together. And it’s an amazing feeling. I understand why there was a bit of resentment towards me coming back, but it was never going to stop me. I am professional enough in my work to focus on the team. And if I can produce a team that excites the fans, and we can win things in my time here, then I hope that can be acceptable. For some, I was erased out of the history of the club because of how I left. So probably what I did before really hasn’t counted for anything. For me to come back here was to start again and have that hunger and ambition to win. And win in a style that the club and the supporters have been used to.”
Nothing may have been achieved on the pitch in Rodgers’ current Celtic tenure. But, just as he achieved the seemingly impossible by presiding over the invincible treble of 2016-17 and seven straight trophies in total, so it is with the standing he is regaining among the Celtic support. Any serious faltering over the opening months of his second spell as Postecoglou has been ripping it up down south would have resulted in his suffering an almighty pasting as the Australian would have been pined for.
“I think you can respect the work Ange has done here in the two years. I was here nearly three and then I left,” he said. “Ange has gone to Tottenham and is doing a fantastic job at a club perfect for how he wants to play and the players there. But it doesn’t give me any more or less satisfaction. I don’t conflate the two. The overall objective here is to be successful. I knew the challenges coming here, the perception. I said on the first day I came back here because I knew people were hurt. And, if I’m being frank, I was probably suppressing my own hurt.
“The idea was to come back and build that relationship again. I knew it wouldn’t be straight away because if you’re really hurt then that can take time. But I hope, in time, I can bring the success that lets people see that I’m back here for the success of Celtic. I hope that can give them joy and our relationship comes together again.”
Any hurt felt was not wrapped up in the abuse meted out to him for simply taking a career path Postecoglou didn’t hesitate to follow, though. Just as there is no sense of him now righting a wrong from four-and-a-half years ago. “I had such a strong bond here and was in such a great place,” Rodgers said. “Obviously, my professional challenge took me away, into the most competitive league in the world. But, from a personal perspective, the bond breaking – the depth of hurt that it gave – was probably overridden for a while just purely because I was professional and doing another job. But, over time, you realised actually how much it had meant to be here both from a professional perspective and a personal perspective because I loved the life here in Glasgow and the people. So, that was the reason. The hurt that comes with making a decision, you obviously live with that. But you never regret that.”
Brendan Rodgers recalls his sparkling Celtic moment – ‘everything in the game was just what I wanted to see’
Brendan Rodgers enjoyed a stellar derby record in his first stint as Celtic manager, his only loss coming in his 13th and final outing. None sparkled, however, quite like his first.
By Graeme Macpherson
Published 2nd Sep 2023, 22:30 BST
It was 2016, Rangers were back in the top flight and their supporters were making bullish noises about “going for 55”. But those title credentials were exposed as hollow in a devastating September afternoon at Celtic Park as Moussa Dembele rammed in a hat-trick and Rodgers showed he hadn’t moved north merely to finish second. As he prepares to resume hostilities with Rangers on Sunday afternoon, Rodgers reflected on that occasion and outlined his desire for more of the same.
“It was September 10, the sun was shining and I remember it all very well,” he recalled. “I had obviously watched the game for so many years on TV. But I was driving in when I realised that was me inside it, that I was in the game. We played ever so well. I remember Leigh Griffiths was out and Moussa introduced himself to the Celtic support. Everything in the game was just what I wanted to see. We were fast, powerful, creative, organised and there was an intensity there. That spilled into the stands, they had a great day. To win 5-1 was special. I think I was involved in 13 when I was up here last time and every game felt really big, really special. It’s such a big part of being here. I can’t wait.”
The gap between Celtic and Rangers is a lot closer now than it was at the start of Rodgers’ first reign but the Northern Irishman insists his mindset ahead of the trip to Ibrox hasn’t changed, even with no Celtic fans inside the stadium to lend their vocal support. “Our idea is to play the game we want to play,” he added. “And my way is always to attack the game. You play with no fear. This is where you get judged as a Celtic player, in games like this. Impose your way on the game, play with a speed and intensity and organisation in the game that is consistent from the first whistle to the last.”
Celtic have endured a few stumbles at the start of Rodgers’ second coming, most notably the Viaplay Cup exit to Kilmarnock and then last weekend’s draw with St Johnstone. The former Liverpool manager concedes it’s been far from flawless but believes it won’t take much to fix it. “We should win that (St Johnstone) game. There were few positives in it. But I look at the speed of it, the positioning and all the technical things and crystallise that in the review that we do with the players. And they are easily fixed. This is what excites me about the team.”
Rangers have endured their own struggles, too, most recently the midweek walloping by PSV Eindhoven that ended their Champions League aspirations. “PSV are a good side,” reasoned Rodgers. “Rangers beating them last year maybe created that expectation of going there again and doing the same thing. You have to lick your wounds. It’s not nice, especially when there’s a Champions League pot at the end of it. Part of success sometimes is when you don’t get the results and you have to be strong enough to go again.”
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