CAIXINHA — THE FALLOUT: SPORTSMAIL SPECIAL

It doesn’t matter what you achieve as boss... you’re always worried about getting the sack

IT is a fear that never truly goes away. A sense of professional foreboding capable of creeping into the most promising of scenarios. If ever you wanted proof that football managers live in a world far removed from normality, one where all the talent and self-belief under the sun can be flipped with indecent haste, consider the testimony of Brendan Rodgers.

When he was unveiled as Celtic manager before thousands of adoring fans, fulfilling a boyhood ambition at the club he grew up supporting, the Northern Irishman knew one thing with absolute certainty.

A bad six or seven months and, well, he would suffer the fate just foisted upon Rangers counterpart Pedro Caixinha.

‘Yeah, I did (realise that),’ said Rodgers. ‘And you live with that fear as a manager. Always.

‘I don’t think you can ever rely on what you did yesterday. It doesn’t guarantee you success tomorrow.

‘The worry for me coming here was, considering the people I grew up with and now working at the club I supported, that I would fail. And how that would feel.

‘And I still have that in my own mind. So that’s part of the driving force to ensure that you can never become complacent.

‘But, thankfully, I’ve got an outstanding board of directors and we communicate very well.

‘We’re very clear on our strategy and very much in unison.

‘But, as a manager, yeah. You never stop thinking that way.’

That Rodgers might have been a little concerned on his arrival perhaps suggests no more than prudence on the part of a man who, like most in his line of work, knows how it feels to be bumped without ceremony.

The revelation that he is nagged by fear of the sack even now, with his team on the brink of equalling a century-old British record of unbeaten domestic fixtures? Football folk exist in odd environs, indeed.

As Rodgers understands, however, even a club suffering serious problems in any number of departments will axe a manager before considering any root-and-branch reform.

‘In new football, that’s always the case,’ he explained. ‘It’s easier to move one man than it is to maybe move groups of players under contract.’

Full of sympathy for Caixinha, the former Watford, Reading, Swansea and Liverpool coach didn’t argue directly against the suggestion that seven months wasn’t long enough for Rangers to make a judgment.

But past experience has taught him that any manager dawdling for a week or two is at risk.

‘I had an experience at Reading that didn’t last that long — I had 20 games,’ he recalled yesterday.

‘I went in, I probably shouldn’t have left Watford when I did. But I felt I was going to a club that I knew very well.

‘My fault was that I didn’t really understand — or even ask — what the expectations were.

‘I had an idea that they hadn’t been promoted, they’d lost out in the play-offs to Burnley, so they wanted to make a change.

‘You go in, you sign for three years and you believe you’re going to get the opportunity to do that.

‘We lost 14 players that summer, so there was a big overhaul, young players came into the team.

‘And then, before you know it, 20 games — and you’ve got the sack.

‘So I think you can go in with all the best intentions. But what you learn is that you need to win games.

‘The sack certainly promotes that idea in your mind! The first time it happens, it does.

‘After that, you become that bit more clinical and understand the situation.

‘It’s very, very clear in modern football that you need to somehow impose your way of working as soon as you possibly can.

‘Like I say, at the big clubs with the big pressure and big demands to win, and to win in a certain style, you’ve got to be very clear and concise in how you do your work.’

Invited to contrast his own ability to keep fringe players involved and Caixinha’s very public fall-outs with members of the Rangers squad, Rodgers said: ‘Listen, every coach has a way of working — and leadership comes in different ways.

‘I have a way in which I work. I care for players, I care for people, I want to work in a certain way.

‘I like the players to enjoy that way of working. I like them to feel they can improve and develop.

‘And I like them to feel that the BR on my shirt means nothing, if they don’t respect me as a human being.

‘So those are the key things in my leadership. Various coaches will have different ways.

‘The key is that you worry about yourself. You can only control yourself and your club.

‘You pick your manager to come in and then it is up to him when he comes in how he works.’

The theory that Celtic would welcome a renewed challenge from Govan is all played out.

As for the argument that fans of every club are waiting on bated breath for the Light Blues to ride to the rescue, sparing the nation from this Hooped domination?

Smiling as he was asked about Rangers legend Graeme Souness’ assertions about Scottish football needing a strong push from the Ibrox side, Rodgers said: ‘The older and more experienced you get, you learn to not listen so much.

‘My worry is only for Celtic. I came here for one reason — for Celtic — and that is my only worry. My worry when I came in here was to be the best that I could be.

‘Go back 16 months ago when Celtic had lost to Rangers in the Scottish Cup semi-final. If you had to regurgitate those headlines, they wouldn’t be the same as what they are today. It’s a process.’

That process has left Celtic virtually untouchable at the top of the Scottish game, with the midweek trouncing of Aberdeen described by Rodgers as ‘another signpost showing the way and the direction that we are heading in’.

If anyone is wondering, the direction is away over the horizon, leaving behind only demoralised opponents — and plenty of plaudits — in their wake.

Yet the man at the helm can never fully relax. Not in these dangerous waters. Not when the fear is forever out there, lurking in the shallows.

Losing your job really promotes the idea that you need to win games!