Why Celtic's Rodgers ignored the transfer 'toxic energy'

It's the eve of a new season. How are you feeling and how has the summer been?

We had a good break at the end of last season, we have come back and the pre-season has gone as well as we could have hoped for. The players look fit, sharp, and strong, and we are in a really good place.

Is the aim to improve on the successful campaign of last year and what have you been telling the players the last few weeks?

I think the message is very much the same. When you are at a club like Celtic it is very much a special challenge every single game. It doesn't lessen just because you have had a successful season. For us, it is much the same idea, we come in and our objective is to win every domestic trophy. You can't hide behind anything other than that and we are in an exciting Champions League format and we want to see if we can get to the playoff stage of that. Alongside that, for me, it will be looking at the football performance and the consistency of that. There were spells last year where we played some fantastic football and probably more so towards the end. There were some sporadic games in between not so much. Now the clarity is there in terms of how we are working then I would expect us to really be a lot more consistent than what we were last season.

The first game is on Sunday. Are you happy with the way your squad is personnel-wise, fitness-wise and tactical-wise?

Yes. I am very pleased with the fitness and technical aspects.  We worked on some things in pre-season especially out in America against some really good opponents. It was interesting because I had one young player of mine who played for Chelsea, a former player who said after the game that we played against them and he was talking on the bench and he said 'That was a Brendan team we were playing'. So that was a good sign for me on a personal level as has played for me before and he knows what I expect and demand and he can see it in a different team but playing the same way. From that side of it, we are in a really good place.

Can I ask about Paulo Bernardo, he signed permanently last night. How big is that for the club? What can he bring to Celtic?

It is a fantastic signing for the club. He was a young player who had come in late last season. In modern times, it is all about the squad especially when you play the number of games that we play. We played 50 games last season and we will play more this season so to have a squad is very important. Paulo was a young player who was the Portugal u-21 captain coming in and he contributed some very big moments last season. He is very low maintenance as a player. As a player, he was so professional last year and whether he was playing or not he was a really good teammate. That is the culture that we have here. He fitted perfectly into that. He also could see that he can improve and develop and I could see that too. Bringing him in is a really good addition to our squad. 

Personnel-wise, how close is the squad to where you need it to be this season?

We want to improve, yes. Of that, there is no doubt. I am not going to get caught up in negative and toxic energy around signings and everything else. Every club will finish the season and then expects to be stronger in the next season. We are no different. Do we want to improve? Yes. Does the board know that? Yes. With the tools that we have at this moment in time, the players are working very hard. I would expect us to add to that and be stronger by the time the window closes.

There is a lot of speculation about Matt O'Riley and you have been asked a lot of questions about him. How has he dealt with that and how confident are you that it won't affect him on the pitch?

I am very confident it won't affect him. It is not easy that is the reality of it but he is the ultimate professional. He knows he is in a good place here. I have said it before Celtic is a place where you can leave but you don't have to. I think he has seen over the last three years and the last season that he had in particular what it has given him and the progress he has made in his career. He is 23 and if he plays to 35 he has another 12 years left in his career. He has invested his time in his development and it is clear he will attract attention. I said during the week and it is not just for Celtic but the Scottish game in general for so long the price that has been set on a player has been because of the league and having worked down south for many years and knowing the finances that are involved and the level of players sometimes the league that attracts the fee and gets the offers. It won't happen in this case. You pay for the player and if you want the player you'll pay for him. I have known young guys in this window who have gone for £20-30 million pounds and we get offers in for the likes of Matt that are with the greatest of respect nowhere near that. We don't have to sell. The club does not need to sell but we respect that there will be a point in a young player's career at this club that he may for financial reasons and conditions in his life be able to improve that three or four times over. There still has to be a value for the player and not just the league. For us, he is a very valuable player and until that changes I have every faith in Matt. His focus, and his mentality and you saw it in pre-season with his performances were consistently very high. He looks to be in a great place alongside the other players.

What kind of challenge do you expect from Kilmarnock on Sunday?

There is always a challenge with Derek's (McInnes) teams. He's a fantastic coach. I watched the game last night (v Cercle Brugge) and he would be disappointed. It was difficult conditions, very hot. It doesn't take away from the job that he has done. To be sat watching Kilmarnock in a European game is a testament to the work that he and his staff have done. I know that every time we play Kilmarnock we have to be at our very best. That's what we aim to be at the weekend. It is a tough start for us but we really have to go and make that first step a good step.

Going back to Matt. Has he learned from it all and is he in a better place to deal with all of the speculation?

I think he understands that as a young guy, a lot of it can be gossip and speculation and until there is something concrete that really makes him think then he will continue to get on with his work. I think that is a gift that he has. He is very level-headed. There is no doubt that speculation with top European or English Premier League teams can wobble you. I have not seen that with Matt at all. I think we have a lot of communication on it as well. I think he knows my feelings about his ability and where he is at and where he can go to. It is like everything in life. It is all about timing.

Reports down south suggested Adam Idah could be done before the game on Sunday. Is that something that could be true?

Not that I am aware of. 

Are you looking to get somebody in before Sunday's game at all?

I am not sure. There is work going on. We just have to keep our eyes open and hopefully, we can. My focus is very much on the squad of players that we have now and getting us ready for the weekend. We still have just under four weeks to bring the players in that will hopefully be the difference for us.

Do you anticipate working right up until that transfer deadline or will you in an ideal world have it all done without having the dramas of last-minute deals?

I am quite relaxed about it. I know what I have always wanted and I know how we can improve the team. There are so many moving parts in transfers and it is not just a case of we need that player and we can pick him. It is not as simple as that and it is very complex. If it was only one way, I would have wanted to have had them in before now. Clearly, every coach or manager would love to have his players in for pre-season where he could work with them and bed them in and get them stable and start the new season. It doesn't always work like that. Whilst the work is going on behind to improve the squad and give us the sort of guys who can make a difference for us we will work with what we have. There will be some guys who will move on as they will feel that they want to play games. I can only pay a testament to the actual squad. It can be a very challenging period in pre-season with players thinking their futures lie elsewhere or ones that do not have so long to go in their contracts. This is arguably one of the best pre-seasons I have ever had in terms of mentality, work rate, intensity and seeing the growth in the team. That is what I always want. I have done it in my own personal and professional life. You always want to see things grow and this team have been absolutely brilliant over pre-season. We want to take these steps and take them into competitive games.  

Can you put a number on the bodies you need in the door before the window shuts?

I can in my own mind, but not openly. You guys know the score. If I gave you a number it would be held against me. I know internally what I want in my own mind to help us. We can only really assess the window once it is done. Our duty is to the supporters and to give them the best team that we possibly can because they deserve that. The support they give the club and the money they spend at this club, so we as a football club have to give them the best team that we possibly can. Sometimes you can't do that straight away and sometimes you have to wait that wee bit longer, frustrating as that can be for managers, coaches, supporters but also for the players. The players want the competition as they want fresh faces in the door in order to improve. As long as by August 31, we have improved our team and our squad then we will all be very happy and we can move on.

You mentioned that the euros were having a bit of an effect on football in general a little bit. Is there a need for a bit of patience, as plenty still can happen in the next four weeks?

I think the challenge in modern life is that. Nobody is patient for anything. Everything is for now. It’s a knock-on effect, and lots of the Premier League teams are in America or travelling away and are further behind in their pre-season preparation phases like we were. It’s only then because you have the euros that all these players are out, so they need players that might be available later on. It’s only really when they’ve all come back and the players that have been in the tournament come back that their squad starts to swell. Then they can look at making movements from there. Those are all of the little bits behind the scenes that some of the supporters might not understand. We know that the most important thing is that we do improve the squad and look to do that over the course of the rest of the window.

Is the biggest enemy complacency, because Celtic are in such a healthy position right now domestically that you can’t afford to sit still as a manager and can’t afford to not try and drive on? Is that a danger?

No, not within our psyche and a manager’s psyche and a player’s psyche. I think it’s natural that others can think that and you can just win, but no chance. We’re measured on our own standard and our own standards are domestically being really strong. That’s our bread and butter, so you have to continue with that. You can’t not think that it won’t change like it did a few years ago. Rangers won the league a few years ago, with Celtic maybe not in the best position. People may have thought that Rangers would have moved away because they had won the league. Then it quickly changed again. I’m always mindful of the fact that complacency doesn’t ever enter my mind because we didn’t win all of our trophies last year. We won two and lost out on one. Domestically, we have got to make up for that, and then in Europe, we have to be better.  As simple as that, you can’t beat about the bush. You look at where we’re at, we have to be better. In order to be better you need quality. If you’re going to improve on that then we need to find that. It’s as simple as that. That’s our drive and motivation, and that’s something that the ambition is absolutely burning for us to be the best we can be.

Looking at you Brendan, is it about progression and holding your own and playing your own brand of football? How does that manifest itself this season?

For me, I want us to be able to get into a play-off position and I think that it’s the balance because you’re playing teams that are really high-level, but you’ve now got 8 games. We are also being realistic as well, the club has only won one game in so many years at home. That should not stop us from pushing, and I think that with the right quality of player at that level that can help us, I believe we can do that. I’ve got every confidence that we can do that. We were very close last year, and some were unhappy because we didn’t qualify. However, if you come away and look at the games, we won one game and could have very easily won the other two, and maybe we could have done. The games away from home were close as well, the Atletico Madrid game away was a tough one for us. For me, success will always be to try and come out of the group stages, but I know what we need for that. Otherwise, it will be a challenge for us. We’ll always look to play in the way we want to play. There are different ways to succeed but for me, we’ll look to play like we did recently in pre-season with Man City and Chelsea. You’re playing top players but you want to take the game to them and put in your style of football. However, you know there’s a balance and you have to defend at times. The balance is what has pleased me as time has gone on here. We want to be aggressive and hopefully, we can stay with that same mentality.

You mentioned Man City there. How impressed were you with Kasper Schmeichel’s save against Erling Haaland?

He’s still one of the best shot-stoppers in world football. I know he’s really excited to be here and I know by the conversation I had with him that he couldn’t get here quick enough. He’s still a top keeper, and you see his presence and his stature in the goal. Also with Kasper, I know how competitive and hungry he is. That really impressed me when I worked with him at Leicester. His competitive and he’s got his mind set on the World Cup in a couple of year’s time, so that’s great for him and for us. You see his stature and presence in the goal, and what he gives us with the ball as well to progress the game. He’s the whole package, so he’s a brilliant signing for us.

Will Kasper bring leadership as well? You lost Joe Hart.

Yes. Joe was amazing and he’ll be loved here forever by the players and the supporters. He gave three years of incredible service and it was brilliant how it all ended for him. He ended it like you would want to as a player. When you take away that figure that he was in the changing room and replace that with someone similar but different in ways. They both have old-school leadership, and these boys are the last of this dying breed of proper leaders. To have that in the changing room, we can really see the influence already.

How’s the squad looking? Nicolas Kuhn was injured for that last game, Daizen Maeda came off and Cameron Carter-Vickers.

Yes, all fine. Nicolas has been back in the past few days and trained, so he’ll be all good for the weekend. Daizen we just need to assess, he may not make it at the weekend, it was quite a nasty knee bruise that he had when he came off. We’ll give that till the last moment and see how he is. Cameron is fine. The squad is fine and in a really good place.

How has Anthony Ralston been, you saw him in the USA but you saw what he went through with Scotland and came through. Would that be something you would speak to him about - making sure he recovered from it?

I spoke to Tony when he was out there, so I had a good conversation with him. I think he came out of it with a lot of credit - the tournament. Playing in a system that he’s not used to playing in and how he adapted and how he came through the pass - it didn’t surprise me. I know that you either sink or swim in those situations and I knew that he was going to swim. He’s a tough boy and I’m so happy that he’s here. All the boys had time to go away and reset, Tony’s came back in and he’s looked really good over the course of pre-season. He’s fit and ready to go, so anything around that is in the past, really.

Brendan, previously you’ve set targets before the season begins, targets that you express to the players. Your first season previously you smashed through all of your targets. Have you done the same with your targets in terms of what you’re doing or points or trophies?

That’s something that we’ll speak about before, that’s part of my presentation tomorrow. You come through your pre-season getting fit and then the season starts. At Celtic, a lot of these are self-explanatory, really. You’ve got three trophies domestically, and four big challenges. To win them is the target, and the Champions League one is to qualify for the play-offs at the end of January. There will be other little targets that I’ll speak with players individually on in terms of their own personal targets and how they can improve.

Do you think that’s an important psychological part, to have something to achieve?

I believe so. Some will say it’s very difficult in the modern game because you win the next game. I think it’s always nice to have a signpost of where you want to go and making the first step is always important. You might not see the very top of the staircase, but as long as you start and start the right way and make the right first steps then you can get to where you want to get to. I think having a signpost to where you want to go is important.

Jim Craig is going to be given the honour of unfurling the flag on Sunday. How fitting is that?

Very. A club legend, and he carries himself like a legend with class and integrity. I’ve known Jim around the club for a long time, so it’s really nice for him and the family. It’s a great way to symbolise the achievement of last season and then begin with the defence of this season. No better guy to do that.