"He gets it". "He knows what the clubs all about". "He's in it for the long haul". Three phrases which should be collated and bundled into the world's largest cannon, and then fired from the top of Celtic park towards the Norwegian sea. The idea of loyalty in modern football is unfortunately dead and this is a reality that fans will need to begin to grasp.
As Celtic begin to make the transition from Ange Postecoglou to Brendan Rodgers, it is almost a relief to not feel obliged to believe every outrageous soundbite which may be forthcoming from the Irishman. This time it's strictly business and Danny McGrain should be under no illusion that he will have a p45 in the post if he's ever thinking about stepping out of line.
Although many (including myself) will still have PTSD from the day the news broke Postecoglou was off to the English Premier League, my main worry was that we'd once again came to the end of our cycle as a football club. The last time Celtic lost an elite coach, we undoubtedly went backwards and were required to begin perhaps the biggest rebuild of any Celtic squad in the 21st century.
This time however, it appears to be like for like. Whilst Ange's football was breath-taking to watch at times and we swept away all before us domestically, the new man coming in has already proven that he can do the same. Rodgers was also tasked with somewhat of a rebuild when he arrived in 2016 (albeit not of the same scale), whereas this time the nucleus of a strong treble winning squad is already in place.
The next step is an assault on Europe. Rodgers did seem to have a formula of beating the 'cannon fodder' of the champions league qualifying stages, but regularly came unstuck against the big boys. There were fleetingly good performances (Man City home and away, Anderlecht away, Zenit at home) but you never got the feeling that we were genuinely moving towards being a club which could cause regular problems. Demoralising beatings away at Barcelona and PSG to name but two really hammered home the gap that we needed to bridge.
Such results are fine in isolation when you consider the financial disparity that Celtic need to deal with, however if you look towards similar sized clubs in Europe it has been proven time and time again that with clever recruitment and aggressive player trading models it is possible to punch above your weight. Salzburg with Jesse Marsch, Ajax with Erik Ten Haag, the consistent success of Porto and Benfica to name but a few.
Ange Postecoglou spoke about not getting too attached to players (he could have included himself into that bargain) and his warnings have rang true already this window. Jota Felipe Neves has swapped the streets of Glasgow for the sunny beaches of Saudi in a deal worth anywhere between £25-30 million. The mammoth amount of goal contributions from the Portuguese superstar will be hard to replace, but his eye watering transfer fee is a very comfortable consolation. Celtic were already rumoured to be ready to trigger a large transfer budget before the sale, so this window really does present an opportunity for the board to show just how far they want to take the club.
As highly rated as Rodgers is in terms of elevating a playing squad to new levels, his record in the transfer market is suspect at best. This is precisely why the nature of the signing of highly rated Australian winger Marco Tillo is such a relief. The player himself spoke of how Celtic have been tracking him over a number of years and the signature has seemingly been made over Rodger's head. The rumour mill online is rife but the main standout is the potentiality of Swiss wonderkid Fabian Rieder. Signing him would surely require a club record fee (the talk is £15 million) and symbolise a complete change in direction, hopefully scrapping the biscuit tin mentality of the past.
You'd have to presume that this is the trajectory that the club are taking given that I cannot envisage a universe where Brendan Rodgers would have taken the job without concrete assurances that we were going all in. There were stages in games last season where we genuinely went toe to toe with top class opposition in Europe, most memorably the first 60 minutes or so at home to Real Madrid. It was the first time I had seen Celtic press a team of Madrid's quality so aggressively and give them a genuinely uncomfortable night. Due to poor finishing and a bit of bad luck, Celtic ended up losing the game comfortably but the general consensus from the support was that of excitement in anticipation for what this team could achieve if we were able to keep the nucleus of it together. With Kyogo, Mcgregor and Maeda already signing new deals this summer, that certainly seems to be the boards intention.
Mcgregor's extension really is a giant two fingers to my first paragraph. The ultimate one club man and a dying breed of dedication and loyalty to a club. If we are being completely honest, he could quite easily have moved to the English Premier League on multiple occasions and doubled, maybe tripled his salary. Instead, he has put Celtic first. Each year he turns in consistently top class performances on a weekly basis as he has firmly established himself as the beating heart of one of the most successful Celtic sides in history. Rodgers has obviously worked with him before and knows how important he is in terms of gelling all aspects of the team together. Behind the scenes, he has also tied down John Kennedy.
Now that the dust has settled following the management transition, Celtic are still in an incredibly healthy position overall. Keeping Hatate and adding a couple of marquee signings will go along way to putting us in the strongest possible position come that first Champions League game in September, the real acid test.
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