Every Celtic supporter would have felt genuinely uplifted last weekend when Danish midfielder Matt O'Riley returned from a horror injury to bag the winner against Pep Guardiola's Manchester City as he opened his Brighton & Hove Albion account.

The 23-year-old served Celtic with distinction for three seasons winning three Scottish Premiership titles, two Scottish Cups and one League Cup under Ange Postecoglou and Brendan Rodgers. The £30 million fee forked out by the Seagulls may have raised eyebrows at the time as O'Riley became Scottish football's highest-ever transfer but it was fully justified.

It wasn't so much O'Riley's deeds on the park that caught the eye, as the Celtic supporters knew all about his midfield prowess and his knack for scoring. It was O'Riley's words off the park that offered the fans real comfort and joy as he gave an invaluable insight into what it is like to be part of the Celtic dressing room.

For those who are content to knock Scottish football at every opportunity - particularly those south of the border - O'Riley's musings will have given them much food for thought. The player joined a bigger league awash with cash, that much is true, but he was shrewd enough to remind everybody that he left a massive club in Celtic where the demands in Glasgow's east end are unfathomable compared to some of those clubs who reside on the other side of Hadrian's Wall.

O'Riley said: "Respectfully, the pressures of playing at Celtic are for most people unimaginable. It is not easy to win every game of football regardless of who you are playing against. If you have 11 men behind the ball who are well-organised sometimes it is difficult to score. The longer the game goes on, the more anxiety builds up in the crowd.

"You just need to learn to be able to accept that but also just somehow block it out and stay focused. To do that every single game is tiring, you know - mentally and physically - to sustain it as well. Anyone who can play at Celtic for a long time, like James Forrest and Callum McGregor, to have that kind of relentless mentality... it is genuinely tiring. I have so much respect for them to do it over and over again, 60 games a season.

"I was so aware that whatever I did on the pitch contributed to so many fans' happiness. I think for me as a player in terms of preparation to go somewhere else it is perfect just because the demand is so high.

"I enjoyed the pressure of it, though, the responsibility of it. You test your limits every single week, you've got to do it again and again and be better."

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There you have it. Celtic paved the way for O'Riley to play at the elite level of the English Premier League. It is Rodgers - an elite-level manager - who turned O'Riley into a £30 million player. O'Riley has never forgotten that. He will be eternally grateful..

This is the same Rodgers who has been working, building, shaping and moulding the current Celtic team in his own image since O'Riley left for the South coast of London. It is the same Rodgers who will transform Nicolas Kuhn into a £40 million player by the time he decides that he has outgrown Scottish football. The only problem for Celtic is that day may come sooner than expected with regards to the German winger.

It was Rodgers who presciently pointed this out when O'Riley departed the G40 scene in the summer:  The 51-year-old said: "Celtic won't be the end game for some of these players, but it's going to give them so much. Matt (O'Riley) leaves here now a winner, a better footballer and ready to play for any team in the world.

"When you play for Celtic, with all the pressure, you become a winner, he can go on and play for most teams in the world now."

It's why the Celtic supporters should have rejoiced hearing those words from O'Riley. Rodgers worked his elite-level managerial magic on him. He developed O'Riley to the point where he could take his extraordinary talent to the self-proclaimed best league in the world.

By uttering these words the Great Dane was cryptically pointing out that Rodgers' approach to improving footballers is absolute. It is a constant work in progress. However, there's plenty more where he came from if you listened carefully enough and deciphered O'Riley's coded message. Rodgers improves players. That has always been his forte and will continue to be moving forward.

O'Riley took us inside the inner sanctum of the Celtic manager and helped spell out the way the Irishman works. It was also Rodgers who helped deconstruct to an extent what his role as a head coach was as he sat deep in the bowels of the Hampden Auditorium after the near-perfect 6-0 destruction of Aberdeen in the Scottish League Cup semi-final.

Rodgers said: "I'm a developer at heart, you know, so people will say, well, what can you develop when you're 6-0 or whatever the score?

"Every day you can develop and improve. That's what I always look to, to drive home, that standard of performance to be better.

"So, you've got lots of players that are young enough and even the older players, you can always improve and that's something that we drive through every day."

(Image: Craig Williamson - SNS Group) That victory was followed by the 'generational game' and superb 3-1 triumph over RB Leipzig at Celtic Park in the Champions League when Rodgers' side came of age on the biggest club stage to rightfully earn plaudits as the result reverberated all around Europe. It's no surprise that Celtic produced stunning back-to-back performances domestically and in Europe when it mattered most.

That's why O'Riley's words about Celtic at the weekend should have been sweet music to every supporter's ears. O'Riley has not forgotten the roots that he planted firmly in Scottish football.  He is well aware of who and what was largely responsible for giving him a guiding hand and the career push needed to propel him to the level where he now plies his trade.

The education O'Riley received at Celtic, especially under Rodgers, will stand him in good stead for his entire football career. O'Riley is simply putting into practice the same knowledge and wisdom that Rodgers is imparting to every member of the current Celtic squad.

As the player stated Rodgers prepares his players to believe that not only can they play for but they can also beat the best sides in the world. Rodgers' approach to the development of his Celtic players is relentless. It always has been. It always will be.

This is a new Celtic under Rodgers. Domestically they are a force of nature. In Europe, Rodgers is striving to turn Celtic into the force of old. So you can bring on the Hearts, the Hibs and Rangers all you want. Rodgers and his men's sights are now trained and focused on making inroads against the Barcelona and Real Madrids of this world.  The Champions League results against Atalanta and RB Leipzig represented a fairly good start. Rodgers and Celtic are out to show the world what they can do.

To the outsider, winning every game is an unimaginable pressure. For Rodgers and his players, it just comes with the territory of being at a club like Celtic.

Just ask O'Riley.