CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Having been close to joining the set-up, the Celtic boss is a great admirer of Manchester City’s ambitions and the man in charge, hears Graeme Macpherson
ENGLISH football remains in a state of flux. That a club such as Leicester City could overcome numerous rivals with far greater resources to become champions was a reminder that there is no natural order to matters. The oft-repeated, hyperbolic claim that the Barclays Premier League is the best in the world certainly deserves scrutiny but few could argue that right now it is among the most competitive. At the start of this season — with three of the biggest clubs introducing new managers, four if you include Everton — only the foolish or bold would have stuck their neck out to predict with conviction who would win the title. There was no obvious frontrunner. Already, though, a strong case is being constructed by Manchester City.
Like Chelsea and city rivals United, Celtic’s Champions League opponents on Wednesday opted to begin this season with a new man in charge. Unlike the others, however, there has been no need for a beddingin period. Pep Guardiola, managing in England for the first time, could not have looked more at home if they had made Catalan Manchester’s mother tongue.
It has been the perfect start in the literal sense, City winning every competitive match they have played under Guardiola, including a 4-0 victory over Borussia Monchengladbach in their opening Champions League group game. The portents do not look great for a Celtic side still recovering from the 7-0 walloping handed out by Barcelona and hoping to get their first points on the board.
BrendanRodgers, though, can’t help but admire City’s metamorphosis, both this season under Guardiola and in the longer term since being taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008. He could have been a part of it in the early years, having been approached by City in 2010 to be assistant to Roberto Mancini.
Out of work at the time after being sacked by Reading six months earlier, the offer was flattering but ultimately turned down, Rodgers preferring to wait for the chance to become a manager again and ending up at Swansea. It was his first insight into how City, under new Middle Eastern management, went about their business and he was impressed.
“I know the people well there,” he said. “I had met them up at City’s ground and then I was invited to Milan to go and speak there with them. I wanted to be a manager, of course, but at that time there weren’t a lot of possibilities. They thought because I had worked at Chelsea with the big players that I could maybe come in and make an impact at City.
“After the chats it quickly went because I was offered the job at Swansea. So I went back to be the No 1 again and that was the best thing for me. But I got to know about the club then in those discussions and I have to say I am big admirer of them and their plans. They genuinely have a project there. They want to win but it’s also about developing the community and everything around it.
“I’ve always seen it as more than [a money-making exercise] because I was shown plans of the training facilities they were going to build and the mini stadiums, how they were going to try to roll it out around the world.
“Of course, with the big clubs it’s about winning and to do that they need to spend to get success very quickly. Chelsea did exactly the same in 2003-04. They brought in big players for big money and that gets you winning titles and trophies and once you start to do that it will attract the other players in. City have spent big but I know for sure they will want to bring some players through in their youth system. So, yeah, they have a very strategic way they want to do it. It’s a club and people I have huge admiration for.”
IF an element of stagnation had crept in during the latter stages of Manuel Pellegrini’s tenure as manager, then any cobwebs have been quickly swept away by Guardiola. The fresh mindset introduced by the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich man — who had known several months before that he would be taking over at the Etihad — has helped give City an early jump on their rivals.
“In terms of the pecking order in English football, I think City belong