Bren’s yen for change
What mattered more to him though was the freedom and control he needed to turn his vision into a reality.
As the Hoops boss prepared for his first cup final with the club, he revealed he was asked by Dermot Desmond and Peter Lawwell to be their architect.
Unfettered by the limitations placed on him at Liverpool, it was a challenge he couldn’t resist. And today’s the day where the plan moves from the page to the pitch to the podium.
Asked if he preferred the overarching role he has at Celtic, he said: “Absolutely. It’s the only way to work. That’s why you are the manager – to manage the football operation.
“It was different at Liverpool with the transfer committee. That’s how it was set up before I got there. And I’m not against that, the modern manager is younger, especially if he is a coaching manager then he can’t see every player.
“If you are out doing double sessions, preparing sessions and have other commitments it is hard to then go and see players at the same time.
“What is vitally important is that everything is in tune with what your idea of football is, what your philosophy is. But I was asked by Dermot and Peter when I came in here to be the architect of the club. That was very appealing.
“You still can’t do it all on your own. You don’t know everything. You know 90 per cent but there’s another 10 per cent out there you need specialists to help you with. I know that but that allows me to manage that way, to delegate, to get other specialists’ opinions on things.”
The comparisons with Martin O’Neill’s time in charge at the club are inevitable. A Northern Irishman, up from England with a stellar reputation, who had both earned the right to – and demanded – the autonomy to do things his way.
Rodgers said: “I was a huge admirer of Martin. What I first and foremost saw was he did the dirty work. He was obviously a player and had a great career, he did great for Northern Ireland. But his first job was at Grantham, then at Wycombe before making moves.
“So he was prepared to do the dirty work. He went to Leicester and had a beautiful spell there. I admired a lot of the guys who came out of Northern Ireland, it is such a small country and how they represented it. They provided great inspiration for younger generations to go and achieve something. Martin was certainly of that ilk.
“But i wasn’t just following Martin here, it was trying to follow on great work that has happened over a number of years. Ronny was here for a couple of years and won a couple of titles plus a cup. Whatever is said, he did a good job.
“Lenny before him, he did an excellent job. Gordon Strachan had a great time here. So for me it was about trying to consolidate and develop that winning idea. Trying to do it in the way I wanted to.”
Not that he’s expecting to get it all his own way today. Rodgers is also an admirer of Derek McInnes’s work, and has been since long before his arrival at Aberdeen.
With two wins over him already in the bank it would be easy to take a third for granted but he saw enough in a radical approach from the Dons at Pittodrie – leaving out arguably their two best players in Adam Rooney and James Maddison – to realise Celts won’t have it easy.
He said: “It tells me Derek is a thinking coach. They lost 4-1 to us the time before, and they’re trying to find a way. You have to admire a coach when he does that.
“The simple thing would be to roll out the same team and maybe you lose again and you think afterwards you should have done something different. Everyone’s a captain in hindsight.
“But he and his staff will have studied us and come up with what they thought was the best way to get a result. We’ve won the two games, could have been more comfortable in the second one, but we’ve played well.
“It’s a cup final though. It’ll be tough. In my conversations with Derek, both at Bristol City and Aberdeen, he struck me as someone who was wanting to go down the right path always. I was delighted he came to Aberdeen, a big club, and when I was at Liverpool we spoke more.
“I gave him Danny Ward on loan because I believe he’s a good developer of players, and there were one or two others he was interested in. I like him, he’s conscientious with his work, his communication is open, he sets his teams up very well. They work hard, fight for a result and mix the game up well.”
Rodgers may not be looking further down the line than the 90 minutes – or 120 – right in front of him but asked what kind of legacy he’d like his architecture to produce, he said: “We can hopefully be here for as long as we possibly can and grow and develop.
“The biggest thing for me is having a team of substance, one that supporters enjoy watching.
“That’s the ultimate aim as a coach and a manager.
“I’m not worried so much about the periphery stuff, as long as the job I do is respected by the people at the club, the supporters and that the players enjoy their work.
“If we get a wee bit of luck along the way we can win trophies and make our mark.”