PLAYERS ARE NOT ROBOTS
Rodgers is left furious after SFA’s summer tour plans threaten to put further strain on his Celtic stars
IT’S not as if the growing furore surrounding it could in any way be described as irrational or unpredictable. Remember the rumpus that accompanied the scheduling of the clash with England last June, coming as it did two weeks after the Scottish Cup final?
Well, that was a World Cup qualifier. A seismic occasion taking place on home soil. And still there were many who could have lived without it.
What response did the SFA honestly expect to dragging the national team to Peru and Mexico on May 29 and June 2 respectively? A marching band and bunting?
‘It’s not ideal,’ said Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers. ‘We’ll do a letter to the SFA and it will obviously be easier once there is a manager in place because then that allows for communication.
‘That is the beauty of it. I had that with Gordon (Strachan). We always had a good line of communication and when Malky (Mackay) was in for his game there was a line there. I am sure that will be the same with whoever comes in.’
In theory, Celtic could have as many as eight players worthy of consideration for an epic voyage which will depart within a week of a cup final they dearly hope to contest again. One way or the other, the reality is likely to be radically different.
Entering the first of four qualifying rounds for the Champions League on July 10, Rodgers is likely to assemble his troops at Lennoxtown for the start of pre-season training in mid-June. That practical problem for anyone intending traipsing around south and central America is pretty obvious.
‘Already my feeling is that this feels like a back-to-back season up here,’ added Rodgers.
‘Some of our players got six days off. The maximum some of them had was three weeks and then they are into a real schedule.
‘Of course I am concerned as a Celtic manager with eight players in the squad but also I am concerned for Scotland as a game.
‘Are you going to break young players like Kieran Tierney? These young players who are coming through, they are not robots. I know that the game is about stats and numbers and tactics on a computer but these are human beings and if you are not careful, you can break them.’
This is not an isolated view or one that could be construed to be scaremongering.
Scott Brown, the Celtic captain, this week revealed that PFA Scotland are in dialogue with the top clubs over the introduction of a statutory four-week summer break.
The widespread view of excessive physical demands being placed on players is clearly at loggerheads with those at the SFA who sign up for the kind of friendlies the national team will face this summer.
‘I was aware of them (the talks),’ said Rodgers. ‘But I had no influence on it. It makes sense.
‘Listen, footballers want to play. Of course they want to play. But they also need to recover. It gives supporters a greater game. Look at some of the games in December when tiredness and fatigue has set in and the intensity is not quite there with teams then it is not always a great watch.’
Tierney is the perfect case in point. Just 20 years of age and with truly extraordinary levels of fitness stamina, the full-back was running on empty as a nine-game December schedule took its toll.
‘This is why I have to take players out at times,’ continued Rodgers. ‘I have taken Kieran out the odd time.
‘He is a player I want to play in every single game but I don’t want to break him and when they are fatigued is when they are at their greatest risk of injury.
‘It is a balancing act between getting them over the hill but, when they are under stress physically and tired mentally, it is tough.’
Champions League participants in each of Rodgers’ two seasons, the danger of far-flung international friendlies seems more acute to Celtic than any other side in the country.
But as Rodgers points out, the benefits of his side getting through to the group stage — and accordingly the drawbacks of them failing to make it — are felt far beyond the east end of Glasgow.
‘It is not just for Celtic,’ he said. ‘It is a wider issue for the team that is in there trying to represent Scotland in the Champions League format.
‘You want to have every chance to get in there. Why? Because you are representing Scotland first and foremost and you are in there as that sole team from the nation.
‘When you qualify, as we have done for the last few seasons now, the money that is generated from that goes to every Scottish club and sometimes that is the most money that they get.’
Scottish football and joined-up thinking continue to be strangers. If there is little that could be done to change a FIFA calendar decreeing an Auld Enemy clash early last summer, this has all the hallmarks of an avoidable mess.
Asked if a World Cup year when the nation hasn’t qualified would have seemed the ideal time to take a proper rest, Rodgers replied: ‘You would think so.’
His fervent hope is that a degree of common sense prevails once Strachan’s successor is identified.
‘There might be a different plan in place,’ he said. ‘There might be a plan to take non-international players. We’ll see.
‘We’d aim to be there (at Hampden) in that (Scottish Cup final) on the 19th and then you would need to recover. Next season, with the Nations League that will be competitive, there will be a cry for players to play in that. It is common sense.’
More immediately, Rodgers is anticipating no signs of fatigue as his side prepare to entertain Hibernian tomorrow in their third game back after the winter break.
Sluggish as they trailed by a penalty to Partick Thistle on Tuesday night, his side belatedly crunched through the gears to extend their lead at the top of the Premiership to 11 points.
‘They are all tough games,’ said Rodgers. ‘Of course we went there last year and one of the games we won 5-0.
‘In the first half, we played fairly well but made a couple of mistakes on the ball and on counter-attacks where we opened up our space too much.
‘If we got the goal we should have got early on, then it would probably have changed the game.
‘We had some chances but weren’t quite clinical enough in the first half.
‘It was a penalty (when Mikael Lustig fouled Miles Storey). I think it’s worth noting as people were wondering. It’s pretty similar to Scott Sinclair’s in the (Betfred) Cup final.
‘So then there’s a reaction needed and I thought the reaction in the second half was very good. We had to change the shape of the team, took a greater risk in the game taking off a defender.
‘Then, once we got the lead, we just shored it up and I thought we played well in the second half.’