This is an easy job? Give it a try, says Rodgers

with Celtic.

“Try it!” he laughed. “Before I arrived here, Celtic had won five titles in a row but my feeling was just to try and do it the best way we could.

“I wanted to make sure the stadium was full, could we develop the club on and off the field? That collective effort has been great. But we want to continue along that way. People in the game know it’s not easy.

“It doesn’t matter if you have the biggest budget or not. The consistency to keep winning, the players have shown incredible appetite to do that.

“I look at Callum McGregor who has played 34 games already this season. To keep performing and winning, with all the physicality they have to put in, is impressive on their part.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s Bayern Munich or Manchester City or any other team – they will always have that.

“All you can do is win in the best way you possibly can and build something that allows it to continue.”

The League Cup was the first trophy that Rodgers won in his senior career – and was Celtic’s 100th – but since then he has made a habit of popping the champagne corks.

Levelling with Smith if he successfully claims his seventh straight piece of silverware is something that he will draw quiet satisfaction from without over thinking it.

“It’s very hard for me to look at it in that context,” said Rodgers. ”Walter Smith was a brilliant manager up here and hugely successful. I suppose I have always just tried to look to the next experience, as opposed to from a personal perspective.

“Of course, you have something tangible to show for your work. What we have created so far has been special.”