Brendan Rodgers went out of his way with Celtic second coming declaration and now must be man of his word – Keith Jackson
The League Cup has been tucked away already, all dressed up in green and white ribbons.
And Celtic are so far ahead in the race to the title that Rangers need to throw a double six and come up with a couple of snookers into the bargain to have any chance of stopping four in a row from becoming reality. So, when Brendan Rodgers rolled around in the managerial mud with Derek McInnes on Saturday evening and just about managed to come out on top, then a huge step was taken towards the completion of yet another domestic treble.
McInnes remains the only manager in the country to have defeated Rodgers in any cup competition over the Northern Irishman’s two stints in charge and the Kilmarnock boss came close again at the weekend before his side eventually succumbed to Daizen Maeda’s winner late in the second half. It’s actually getting borderline ridiculous now.
So much so, in fact, that Rodgers might be the first boss in the history of the Scottish game to regard the securing of a domestic clean sweep as the very minimum ambition for the season ahead.
But that’s very probably one of the priority targets he set for his players last summer - a time of the year when Rodgers traditionally makes a habit of jotting down his desires and expectations for the campaign to come. And letting his assembled squad in on the secret.
Complete and utter domestic domination would have played a huge part in his mission statement for May 2025 and Rodgers may even have targeted breaking through the glass ceiling of collecting more than 100 Premiership points.
Right now, by extrapolating their current tally, Celtic are on course to pile up just a little bit less than 99 of them, so there is some work still to be done on that front. But let’s be in no doubt about what Rodgers really wanted to get his teeth into back in the summer when his big wish list for the months ahead was being compiled.
It was all about Europe. And it has been since day one back in the job, when Rodgers made a promise to Celtic’s people that he could achieve what proved to be beyond the capabilities of his dearly cherished predecessor, Ange Postecogulou.
Rodgers was perfectly well aware that merely maintaining the level of superiority Postecoglou had established on the home front was not going to be enough to cut it with a support which would, for the most part, have preferred for the big Aussie to stay put in the first place.
On the contrary, he had to push through and leave Celtic’s mark on a whole new frontier which is precisely why Rodgers made such a point of making his intentions clear from his very first day back in the job.
Let’s be blunt, Rodgers went out of his way to declare that, in his second coming, he could lead the club on a journey of discovery all across the continent. Under his guidance, Celtic would finally experience some form of coming of age on the European stage.
Granted, he may have stopped short of claiming that he could actually win them the Champions League but even so, time and again, a thoroughly bullish Rodgers was absolutely adamant that he could make the club genuinely competitive on the biggest stage of them all.
At this point a ‘hands up’ seems appropriate. True, the more cynical amongst us may have been guilty of rolling the eyes on the basis that Rodgers was doing little more than playing the only card he had left at his disposal. And yet now, here we all are, 18 months or so later with Rodgers and Celtic on the brink of what would constitute a remarkable success.
If three more Champions League points can be secured against BSC Young Boys in Glasgow’s east end on Wednesday night then Celtic will almost certainly have made it into the play-off round of the new look competition with one game still to spare, away to Aston Villa
And Rodgers will most certainly have delivered on an unlikely promise. Yes, it can be reasonably argued that he’s had more than a fair share of good fortune on his side this time around. One look at the current standings confirms that Celtic landed an almost perfect run of home ties against some of the worst sides in the entire competition.
Young Boys are anchored to the foot of the 32 team table with no points from their opening six games. They have scored three goals while haemorrhaging 22 at the other end and will arrive at Parkhead on the ultimate hiding to nothing.
This campaign has been an utterly humiliating experience for the Swiss and one they would rather see the back of as quickly as possible.
"It’s difficult to imagine how they may muster up the stomach to stand in Celtic’s way on Wednesday night.
That’s pretty much the perfect scenario for Scotland’s champions and one Rodgers could not have hand picked in his wildest dreams when he talked so boldly of his intention to restore the club’s credibility at this elite level.
But it’s also far from the only rub of the green where this ongoing campaign is concerned. It’s no coincidence that Slovan Bratislava and RB Leipzig are also pointless with only two games remaining, sitting in 31st and 30th position respectively and with no chance of reaching the next round of matches.
Of course, both of these sides have already been turned over by Celtic at Parkhead which is at least part of the reason they are stuck in such a hopeless position. But it also indicates that the fixture list has been more than generous to Rodgers and his team from the outset.
As a result of those home wins - as well as much harder earned draws against Atalanta, Brugge and Dinamo Zagreb - Celtic have amassed a total of nine points thus far.
All of which means they are currently level with Real Madrid while positioned above both Manchester City and Paris St Germain. And, regardless of Lady Luck’s kindly interventions, that’s quite an astonishing feat.
Now the time has come for Celtic and their manager to prove that Rodgers really is as good as his word.
