FIRST STEP ON ROAD TO PARADISE
Bhoys have been in the wilderness, but with £22m cash pot and a place in the elite, Rodgers can take his...
ONE of the best things Celtic as a club have done in recent years was to tidy up the entrance to the stadium.
Where there was once a crumbling school on one side and the east end equivalent of the Wacky Races on the other, there is now actually something pretty special.
The Celtic Way, complete with the pictures of the greatest XI, is as lovely a walk as you will stroll down on your way to a football stadium anywhere in Britain.
And right at the top is big Billy’s statue with the great man holding aloft the European Cup. It is a sight to behold. All over the stadium facade, huge banners hang and the greatest that played for the club are honoured plus there is a tip of the hat to some of the more memorable milestones from way back when up until recent times.
Celtic are a hell of a football club for giving themselves a pat on the back and yet credit where it’s due, they have got this one bang-on.
Brendan Rodgers is some way from being mentioned among the great and the good.
However, should his team finish the job against Hapoel Be’er Sheva here in Israel tonight, the achievement could earn a banner all of its own.
There are no plans for a statue or even having his name carved into a brick, but make no mistake about this, Rodgers would become the most powerful manager at Celtic Park since Martin O’Neill abdicated 11 years ago if everything goes to plan.
Champions League football this year would, one has to imagine, guarantee this league title, the one after that and probably an eighth for Celtic. Rangers and the rest simply don’t have the funds to challenge.
A ninth and then a 10th championship in a row would be within touching distance. That’s some thought.
INDEED, if Celtic can once again become regulars in the group stages, that’s if Uefa don’t make the competition a closed shop, which even by football’s standards would be an appalling decision, nobody should stop them making 10.
That’s how vital it is that nothing silly happens in the town of Be’er Sheva. Celtic’s Champions League record was okay up until recent years. Three last-16 places, some fine wins and one or two narrow misses is more than acceptable for a club from one of Europe’s smaller leagues. But then Barcelona put seven past them, a chastening night, and the Ronny Deila era was, in terms of Europe, simply catastrophic. That cost Celtic standing and money. They need both.
IF Peter Lawwell is to stop Uefa agreeing to plans which would all but keep out so many clubs from the group stages, he needs to speak from a perspective of a chief executive of a club that actually plays in the Champions League.
Our Continental cousins don’t think much of Celtic winning what they see as a one-horse league every year.
Europe is where it matters and where Celtic need to be.
There was a lot riding on the manager and he is close to delivering.
Rodgers admitted at the weekend that this was the most difficult pre-season of his career.
In the space of a few weeks, he had to work out who he wanted and who could go. The players had to buy into his philosophy and win some games from the off.
There was a stumble in Gibraltar but since then it’s been good to watch. And they have been winning.
Qualification as we know is no gimme, even for clubs with better records than Celtic. A lot of famous names will exit the competition over the next two days.
Were Rodgers to get the club back to where they want to be within his first few months in the job, then he will be able to ask the board for just about anything.
The most important man at any club has to be the manager or it simply won’t work.
CELTIC being Celtic like to make things far more difficult than they are. It would be so like them to concede an early goal and give Hapoel a glimpse of a result. For me, however, this side have more than enough about them to score themselves and that would be sufficient.
Leigh Griffiths is worth a goal a game, Scott Brown is playing like a 25-year-old, Patrick Roberts is fit again and might be involved, while Kolo Toure really looks the business even if the defence, including Craig Gordon, have shipped too many goals.
The confidence is back among the players, the belief also. Rodgers has told them to work hard or they won’t play. They have bought into what he wants and Hapoel, who are no mugs and will hope home advantage counts for a lot, will have to produce the performance of their lives to even give themselves the faintest chance.
It is a huge night for Celtic and their new manager. Many supporters thought the best they could hope for this season was the Europa League.
Now they are just 90 minutes away from seeing the world’s best players in the flesh.
Whether they are good enough to go up against these guys is another matter.
But at least if all goes well, they will have the opportunity to prove themselves.