TIME FOR TOM IN KIDS CLASH
TOM ROGIC heads for Cappielow tonight in a bid to boost Celtic’s Europa League bid.
The Aussie, right, is being lined up for an outing in the Development League clash with Motherwell to get crucial
From Back Page minutes ahead of Thursday’s tie against Zenit St Petersburg.
Rogic hasn’t played a top-team game in two months after sustaining a serious knee injury and was back on the bench for the Scottish Cup win over Partick Thistle.
But he didn’t get on in the final stages after Brendan Rodgers turned to more defensively minded Eboue Kouassi to see through a 3-2 win.
Rodgers said: “Tom looks great in training and it’s just getting him some game time.
“He’ll get some minutes with the Under-23 squad.
“He’s been working very hard but we want to get him game time on Monday and that will give him confidence to play.
“I had to apologise to him. At 3-1 we should have been comfortable well before that but when the late goal goes in it changes your thought process. So unfortunately for him he’s had to have to wait.”
Stuart Armstrong and Patrick Roberts are also fighting to be ready for Zenit while Mikael Lustig should be fine for the first-leg tie having suffered a knee knock against Thistle.
Rodgers added: “We will need to play better than we did against Partick but hopefully the occasion brings that performance up.
“We have a lot of players missing with injuries but it’s two really exciting games for us and the first leg here on Thursday should be a fantastic match.
“We’ll get ready over the next few days and look forward to it.” GIVEN the career Roberto Mancini has enjoyed nothing should surprise him in football any more.
But at his Milan home in 2015 while Mancini was Inter boss he was given a stark reminder of how crazy and cruel the game can be.
To this day he still can’t believe Brendan Rodgers was sacked by Liverpool just months after coming so close to a Premier League title.
Six years previously Mancini and Rodgers had met to discuss the Northern Irishman possibly joining his coaching staff at the Etihad.
Then in charge of Manchester City, he was keen on Rodgers being in his backroom team before he got the gig as Swansea gaffer.
Since then Mancini has watched Rodgers’s career closely from the Liberty Stadium to Anfield and now to Celtic.
The pair haven’t spoken in a few years but will go toe to toe on Thursday night at Parkhead in their Europa League last-32 clash. Mancini is now manager of Zenit St Petersburg, one of the big hitters left in the competition.
And he’s adamant his multi-million pound side will find it difficult in Glasgow – because of Rodgers’s quality as a coach.
Previously, on the potential move to Man City, the Celtic boss said: “I was in talks about maybe going there as first-team coach.
“I was in between jobs. I spoke to the club and flew out to Milan to meet Roberto. We had a nice chat but not that long after, I got the job as Swansea manager.”
Mancini remembers that meeting even if in football it seems such a long time ago.
Currently preparing his Zenit team at a Turkish training camp, Mancini said: “Brendan had the chance to be a coach with me a few years ago when – it seems like – we were a lot younger!
“Brendan is a very good manager. He did great work at Liverpool and was really unlucky to lose his job at Anfield. He was
Brendan has huge qualities and that’s one of the reasons why it will