Brendan Rodgers doesn’t think that Celtic will ever play in the English Premier League.
The Irishman has been in charge of Celtic for 15 months and reawakened the support in a way that no previous manager has achieved.
At every home match Celtic are drawing a bigger crowd than two or three EPL matches combined but 20 years after Fergus McCann considered buying Wimbledon the hoops seem no closer to joining the cash cow down south.
“Celtic in the Premier League would be an amazing story,” Rodgers told Sky Sports. “It would be an amazing experience for everyone, not just for Celtic but for other teams.
“I just don’t think it would ever happen. There are so many barriers to go over. Celtic are one of the great iconic clubs in the world.
“If they were in the Premier League, what that would generate… we played, for example, Ross County at the weekend, we got 58,000-odd thousand.
“Around 60,000 every home game. You could take over virtually every away stadium when you go away, the travelling support will bring 10 or 12,000.
“It’s the pure scale of the club, if you’re talking big clubs, history, supporters, all of that. What it doesn’t have is finance. It doesn’t have the money that the Premier League generates.”
With the door to England firmly closed Celtic’s best hopes of playing in a stronger domestic set up would appear to be in Europe.
Talk about an ‘Atlantic League’ resurface from time to time with Rodgers open to the idea of more continental action.
He added: “I think there’s more of a chance of it being in a European league, than Celtic being in the pyramid system down south.”
Tomorrow Rodgers’ focus will be ebtirely domestic with Celtic taking their 56 match unbeaten run to Ibrox for the first Glasgow derby of the season.