ENJOYING SUN,
Sinclair fancied a move to Parkhead after Rodgers drove to meet him on his Majorcan summer holiday
IT did not take long for Scott Sinclair to discover that Brendan Rodgers was willing to go the extra mile to convince him to join his Celtic revolution. Lying on a Majorcan sunbed last summer, the Aston Villa attacker’s mobile phone suddenly blinked into life in the Balearic sunshine.
On the other end was Rodgers (below), who was pleasantly surprised to discover the pair were holidaying near each other and promptly drove to personally put forward his case for Sinclair moving up to Scotland.
Every other day in training since badgering the 28-year-old to put pen to paper on a £3million move, Rodgers has jokingly asked Sinclair to reimburse him for the petrol money spent to make it to those successful signing talks.
But Sinclair can rightly claim to have paid his boss on the park by being a key driving force in Celtic’s relentless season. One that sees them unbeaten domestically and a game away from a rare domestic Treble.
‘I was on holiday in Spain last summer and Brendan Rodgers called me up for a chat,’ recalled Sinclair, who was yesterday named on the short-list for PFA Scotland Premiership Player of the Year.
‘He was staying 15 minutes away. He was just around the corner, so he drove over to meet me and we had a good chat.
‘It was just a chat. It wasn’t a big thing where we went for a meal or anything. But it was good to meet with him and have a chat — not just about football, but life in general.
‘I then made my mind up and decided to come here to Celtic. But he says to me every other day now: “You owe me my petrol money”.
‘But when I look back at the season now, and think about how well it’s gone, it’s far better than I thought it would be — 100 per cent.’
For Celtic and Sinclair, it was mutual love at first sight.
‘It all started with me coming on and scoring the winner against Hearts (on his debut last August) and from there, it took off.
‘It’s just got better and better with each game.
‘Scoring six goals in six games definitely took the pressure off me.
‘When you come in with a price tag and you don’t do so well in the first few games then people are going to doubt you.
‘So it was nice to get off the mark and go on a good run.
‘You just want to hit the ground running at a new club and, thankfully, I did that.’
Sinclair and Rodgers have known each other since the Celtic manager was reserve-team boss at Chelsea and he was an aspiring teenage attacker.
They would go on to win promotion to the English Premier League via the play-offs together at Swansea in 2010 before Sinclair departed for Manchester City and Aston Villa while Rodgers took over at Liverpool.
Out in the cold at Villa, after a miserable spell at City, teaming up with Rodgers again in the hope of breathing life into a stalled career has proved a fine decision by Sinclair.
His 25 goals in all competitions sees him on the PFA Scotland shortlist alongside Celtic team-mates Stuart Armstrong and Moussa Dembele and Jonny Hayes of Aberdeen. It follows him being named the Parkhead club’s Player of the Year by the fans and his team-mates on Sunday. That accolade came 24 hours after Sinclair’s third Old Firm goal of a remarkable season helped put his side on the road to an historic 5-1 rout of Rangers at Ibrox. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever won a Player of the Year award in my career before. I probably did it at Under-15s with my local team, or something like that, but not professionally,’ beamed Sinclair.
‘I’m just really happy now to be back working under Brendan Rodgers. He’s such a great manager, but not only that, he wants everyone to do well.
‘He really wants to bring the best out in his players. I’ve known him so long. I went to Chelsea at 16 and have known him all these years. He’s seen me grow up from a kid to a man. I think if you ask him, he’ll say he’s seen me grow up as a footballer as well.
‘When I was at Swansea and went to City, he went to Liverpool and we both went our own ways. But when I knew Celtic were interested in me, I just wanted to come up here and play football and get that enjoyment back.
‘The players who played for Celtic said that I’d love it here. There wasn’t anyone who said that I shouldn’t come.
‘One of the first things I knew people might say was that the league wasn’t good, but I wasn’t fussed about anything people said.
‘The thing for me was to be back happy in football and in life. It was great for me to get to the stage where I had enjoyment.
‘Over the previous two or three years, it was tough, being at Manchester City and not even getting on the bench some weeks and training on my own. Then I went to Aston Villa and we got relegated. I found I was at a crossroads in my career, not knowing where I was going to end up or where I was going to go. But now I’m here and everything seems like it’s on the way up again.’
Sinclair credits Rodgers with rescuing him from some dark times and ushering him back towards the limelight.
With only a Scottish Cup final against Aberdeen later this month standing in the way of a coveted Treble, how fitting if a working relationship rekindled in Spain concluded successfully for the season in the sunshine at Hampden.