Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

TV documentary Being Liverpool irked Brendan Rodgers… how will he find Being Celtic?

Brendan Rodgers
Brendan Rodgers

IN the excellent 2012 fly-on-the-wall TV documentary series Being Liverpool, there is a segment focussing on Brendan Rodgers which lingers in the memory.

It showed the Northern Irishman, then the newly-appointed Reds boss, off duty in his sumptuous home.

He is friendly and accommodating, yet his discomfort as he led the camera crew down through the swimming pool level to a private cinema, filled with family and friends, was clear to see.

This, he understood, was not how the thousands of football fans who would comprise the audience, lived their own lives.

The demands of his job, he explained to the camera in mitigation, meant he had little opportunity to enjoy his palatial surroundings.

Four years on, it is to be hoped he is more at ease with conspicuous wealth. In his new role as Celtic manager, he is going to have to be.

In choosing to appoint the 43-year-old on a contract worth £2.25 million a year, the Scottish champions have not so much flexed their financial muscles as burst out of self-imposed constraints.

In the environment he will be entering, their new manager is going to stand out like a newly-minted lottery winner in a working man’s club.

Rodgers will be the best-paid manager in Celtic’s history and the £15 million war chest which will made available to him is on a different level of funding afforded any of his predecessors, bar Martin O’Neill.

O’Neill, it was, who famously asked for five years money at once on his appointment in 2000. Then, on receiving it, he spent the cash on the £6 million signings of Chris Sutton and Neil Lennon.

It says it all about the impact subsequently made by the pair – key figures in the Treble win in his first season and the historic run to Seville and the 2003 UEFA Cup Final – that they still play their part in the football soap opera that is modern-day life at the Hoops.

Lennon, who managed Celtic to three successive titles and to a memorable Champions League victory over Barcelona, was prominent in the list of contenders to replace Ronny Deila, the Norwegian who was well intentioned but came up short due to European failures.

His former team-mate Sutton, having had a go at management himself and given it up, meanwhile passes acerbic judgement from the sidelines in his role as a multi-media pundit.

Always opinionated, he had read the recent comments of chief executive Peter Lawwell of the need for fans to be ‘realistic’ as groundwork for a low-profile – for which read cheaper – appointment was being made.

Think Lennon, Malky Mackay or Steve Clarke.

It was significant then, despite being proved to be wrong, Sutton was one of the first to praise the appointment, describing it as a “coup” by owner Dermot Desmond and his Board.

Yet for all the enthusiasm of onlookers and supporters both, the question of why Rodgers, a man who could reasonably expect to get another chance in the super-wealthy English Premier League, has chosen to move to Scotland?

Why would a man who spent £299 million at Liverpool over seven transfer windows commit himself to operating in a pay structure where he will be able to offer signing targets less than half the weekly wage they would be accustomed to receiving south of the border?

There is, of course, the lure of the Champions League, plus the chance to go head-to-head with his former Watford colleague Mark Warburton when Old Firm hostilities are renewed after a four-year break.

And the appeal of capturing the hearts and minds of a potential 60,000-strong support should not be underestimated.

“I will do all I can to bring supporters exciting, entertaining and winning football,” the Northern Irishman has pledged.

Succeed and he will make himself a hero and give himself the opportunity to one day return to the very pinnacle of club management.

Fail and he is liable to get a longer opportunity to enjoy the trappings of a career that rewards its stars beyond the dreams of the common man.


READ MORE

Efe Ambrose wanted by Fenerbahce as Brendan Rodgers set for Celtic clear-out