Brendan Rodgers has hit back at accusations that he is a fantasist.
The Irishman returned to Celtic in June with progress in Europe clearly a key target when sitting it out would almost certainly have brought him an offer to take charge of an EPL club based on his previous successes at that level.
Unlike his first stint in charge of Celtic there has been no Champions League qualifiers to negotiate with the hoops fairly certain of their place since early April when they moved 12 points clear in the SPFL.
Being a Pot 4 side in the Champions League draw was always going to be difficult but being drawn against Feyenoord from Pot 1 meant that the hoops avoided the real heavyweights.
Tuesday night in Rotterdam was a familiar story of near misses, ‘what if’ moments and self destruction as Celtic finished with nine men and a 2-0 defeat.
Other than Joe Hart and Callum McGregor, Rodgers has to take a youthful squad through five more very testing matches while maintaining Celtic’s grip at the top of the SPLF Premiership.
Making an impact on the Champions League looks as difficult as ever but the Celtic boss told the Daily Mail that it’s a challenge he can face upto:
I’m certainly not a fantasist. I like to dream but I don’t live in fantasy land. I look at the opponents that play at this level and I know the economics of it.
It doesn’t mean we’ll never fight or ever give up hope but I have a common sense side, too, especially given the youthfulness of this squad and where it’s at.
You know the strategy here. All of you guys have seen it. You are bringing in young players, you are developing them and getting them to a level. Part of that learning is domestic and European in which they will make mistakes.
It is what it is. You know when you are bringing in young players that that is a part of the dance really — that they are going to make mistakes. It’s something that hopefully with experience they can get better and improve.
In almost every interview Rodgers is at pains to emphasise that he is working within the club’s strategy, that his job is to deal with the given players rather than to influence arrivals.
By the end of October Lazio and Atletico Madrid will have tested the strategy and Rodgers to the full.
I’m very surprised that he is going along with the ‘I’ll work with what I’m given mantra’ –
While not wanting to wish my life away January is gonna be one interesting month between Clan Lawwell and Brendan !
Right now I’d concede CL football for this year with one major proviso.
That Brendan explains, publicly, that the reason behind capitulation is that the PLC Board insists on penny-pinching and that strategy has failed in the past and will continue to do so, ad infinitum.
The savvy supporters know this truth and have done for years. It needs to be called out.
The Lawwellites in our support are not true supporters or at best they fail to see that Lawwell has cost us NOT in any way helped us.
He’s a typical accountant who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Desmond is a typical capitalist leech and again no friend of Celtic FC.
They BOTH need to be removed and by extension the rest of the Board too as they’ve been placed by one or other of the two main culprits.
The Desmond/Lawwell dream is still hanging onto the 11 years dead OF and flogging both Celtic FC and Sevco New Huns as a financially irresistible package for the single, disgustingly greedy motive of entry to the EPL which would net even Desmond, with all his wealth, an incredible fortune to add to his current one. A capitalist leech and Lawwell is exactly the same but hasn’t managed to achieve his master’s status.
SCUM times 2. GTTF!