RODGERS IS THE DRIVING FORCE!

All is well in Paradise when main grumble at AGM is about the supplier of team bus

LAST year, Celtic founded a fans’ forum to offer supporters’ groups a platform to air their grievances. Meeting three times a year, the Ronny Deila days would have offered grounds for seething disco rd and discontent.

After a domestic Treble, another year of Champions League football and a £ 90million turnover, a shareholder at yesterday’s Annual General Meeting painted a rather different picture.

‘ It’s a great wee night oot,’ claimed Bobby McCulloch. And no one disagreed.

A Celtic AGM is a bit like dipping an elbow in the bath. The best way to gauge the temperature of a tempestuous football club.

In the years when Champions League football slips from their grasp, shareholders reserve the right to tip a boiling kettle of brown stuff over the heads of directors. Yesterday, they stopped just short of flipping Brendan Rodgers on to his f ront and rubbing his back.

Question No1 asked why the Parkhead board persist in using coach- hire company Park’s of Hamilton — the family firm of Rangers directors Douglas and Graeme Park — to ferry players around when the proceeds go to ‘the club across the city.’

That this was the burning issue of the day — the first question someone wanted to ask — makes one thing clear. The Brendan Rodgers effect is alive and well.

‘I don’t think anybody could have written the script to what was an extraordinary year,’ said chief executive Peter Lawwell. ‘And, of course, Brendan Rodgers was the leader.

‘He is an outstanding manager and coach, he is a Celtic man and he carries those Celtic values and standards.

‘And, at this moment, I don’t think there is anybody else in world football that I would rather have in charge of Celtic.’

By any standards, that’s a big statement. Glance around world football and men such as Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti, Antonio Conte, Jose Mourinho and Max Allegri cast a l ong shadow.

Yet the current manager of Celtic is the right man in the right job at the right time. No one can say how long the bonhomie will last, but Rodgers has restored the harmony absent from these AGMs when the team were losing to Malmo and Molde.

‘We’ve raised a good profit and built a real solid f oundation, f i nancially, to take the club forward,’ said Lawwell. ‘We have overachieved in all commercial functions — matchday, retail and broadcasting partnerships.

‘On the pitch... well, what can you say? When we were sitting here this time last year, I don’t think anyone could have predicted what would occur in the remainder of the season.

‘We’d had Brendan here for five months and had made a great start, having qualified for the Champions League, sitting top of the league and in the League Cup final.

‘But what then happened was quite extraordinary. To win the Treble for only the fourth time in our history, to go unbeaten, becoming invincible — that was beyond anyone’s thoughts and imagination at that time.

‘Then, we had six magical days at the end of May when we had events to celebrate the Lions’ 50th anniversary, raising £2m towards the Celtic Foundation’s good causes, which is j ust quite incredible.

‘That’s the Lions’ legacy. We wanted t o make t hi s 50th anniversary year very special and that has certainly been achieved.’

One aspect of a Celtic AGM rarely changes, irrespective of results. A board member of the European Club Association (ECA), Lawwell speaks less these days of cross-border leagues. Yet Celtic’s restless quest to secure bigger revenues continues apace.

The Champions’ Route to the Champions League has been saved, despite another qualifying round to negotiate. And Lawwell sees grounds for all of Scottish football to prosper from changes to the Europa League.

‘ We are l ooking at ways of expanding it and I think that would be great f or Scottish football as well as Celtic,’ he said.

‘We know we are limited here in Scotland, financially, so the way forward for Celtic and Scottish clubs is to perform more in Europe. If, somehow, we can get more Scottish clubs into European competition, that would be great and the finance that would bring in should, hopefully, help the competitive balance here in Scotland.

‘So it’s vital for Celtic and for Scotland that we are there (on the ECA) because there will be change. The important thing is that we have a voice at senior level that will, hopefully, stand us in good stead f or any change going forward.’

Celtic face a daunting encounter with Paris Saint- Germain in France on Wednesday. They lost five goals to them at home and there’s no guarantee things will be much better in the backyard of the world’s most expensive football team.

But participation in the Champions League is what sustains Celtic. It’s the difference between a season of turmoil, strife and selling a big player — and a season where even Lawwell receives a round of applause at the AGM.

‘For the immediate future, we’re in a fairly stable structure in Europe,’ chairman Ian Bankier told shareholders in the club’s Kerrydale Suite. ‘But it’s going to change and we have a big complicated structure for which we are only one club. Therefore, we’re vulnerable to that.

‘There are two ways we can i nfluence i t. One i s that we continue to play in Europe. Last season and this season, we’ve been involved in Champions League football.

‘We’ve met up with and played the very best clubs in Europe.

‘We meet up with them, they meet with us. We play in their stadiums and, importantly, they come here to Glasgow and play in our stadium.

‘They get to experience the great Celtic ni ghts. They get to experience the best fans in the world.

‘That has a huge impact — and that puts us high up in their consciousness.

‘Secondly, is our representation within t he European Club Association. Peter Lawwell is now doing a second term on that and he gives us a voice and a very powerful part of the infrastructure of Europe. That’s the very best thing that can be happening for us from a relatively small country in a very big environment.’

The problems of being a large club from a small country in an ever-expanding commercial landscape are never far from the surface.

Rodgers is here now and the going is good.

How long they can keep him interested and satisfied in the Scottish scene is a question no one can answer.

Giving it his best shot, Bankier added: ‘In terms of ambition, if you look at what we’ve achieved this year, we’re in possession of three titles, we’re once again playing Champions League football and we’re doing that with a squad of players that is a blend of youthful talent, academy and from acquisitions in the market.

‘I think, within the constraints of what we have, we’ve got quite a good blend which should keep the manager more than interested for the foreseeable future.’

Under Rodgers, Celtic continue to move forward. Albeit on a Park’s of Hamilton bus.