Brendan Rodgers was the first Premiership manager to deal with Sergio Aguero.
In August 2011 the £38m former Atletico Madrid striker came off the bench after an hour of Manchester City’s home match against Swansea shortly after Edin Dzeko had opened the scoring.
By the time the final whistle blew City were 4-0 up, Aguero scoring twice, with Swansea taught a harsh lesson in the realities of top flight football.
Since then the Argentinan has scored 147 times for City with two coming yesterday at Swansea to take his tally for the season to 11 despite a three match suspension.
“His first goals in English football were against my team at Swansea when he came on as sub,” Rodgers recalled. “He actually cost more than our stadium – but he is a big talent and one of the leading strikers in the world and he is a handful.
“But for them as a team, they are operating at a really high level. Having come up against them for the past four/five years, they are world class players, working very hard.”
Under Pep Guardiola City have won all six of their opening Premier League matches and look unstoppable domestically at this stage.
The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss was brought in to deliver the Champions League with City yet to really make an impact in that competition despite reaching the last four last season.
Rodgers has a strong personal relationship with City and is grateful to have Patrick Roberts available for Wednesday’s match.
“For him to be involved in the game, they see it as a big part of his development,” the Celtic boss added.
“I am not sure how many clubs would do that to be honest with you. It’s a club and people that I have huge admiration for.”