Scots in star roles
supporter who this week signed a new contract committing him to the club until 2023.
“Kieran knows he’s in a place and an environment where he’s improving,” said Rodgers. “You saw against Bayern how he’s improving with how he’s being asked to play in Europe.
“If he ever goes in the future, he knows when he leaves here, he’s playing the game tactically and technically at the top level. But at this moment, he’s 20, he’s loving his development here and he’s Celtic daft. You can see him in it. The last ones you saw like that were the likes of Tommy Burns or Peter Grant. He’s so passionate about Celtic. But the most important thing is that he and his family see the development and he’s still in that cycle of learning. He’s developing at the moment into a brilliant player.
“The new contract is a sign and a symbol of the improvement he has made in a year. He signed a contract when I first came in, a new deal. Then over the course of a year, we feel there has been big improvement in him, so you want to reward that. He had three and a half years left anyway, so it’s an extension of two and a half to take him through to that length of time. It’s just recognition for how well he’s progressed and puts him on a level of salary where he feels he is working well and getting the rewards for it. That’s important. I said when I came in I like to reward players who are doing well and he really deserves it.”
Rodgers, right, has pledged to bring more Scottish talent through from Celtic’s youth set-up as he looks to build on the domestic dominance of the club which he took to a new level with last season’s “Invincible” treble of trophies. “The vision is simple,” he added. “Win titles, as many as possible. Cups, leagues. Play an attacking and aggressive style of football to win and with a number of players from the Academy base. It’s always been the vision and the vision we are now rolling out into the reality. The club and the players are getting their rewards, but we have to keep developing. That’s the key message.” “It was outstanding, but more importantly, we won today. “It was not our best game, but it was our third game in six days. We just have to be happy with the win.” In Der Tagesspiegel, Sven Goldmann wrote: “Celtic Park is perhaps the most beautiful stadium in Europe; atmospheric, steep and narrow. It’s too bad that [Celtic] are not as big as they once were.” Also in Der Tagesspiegel, Bayern goalkeeper Sven Ulreich is quoted as saying: “We knew Celtic would be better today. It was important that we took the lead.” Many newspapers drew heavily on the atmosphere, with Welt describing it as “legendary”. Bild credited Celtic with starting well, before Kingsley Coman opened the scoring, and also made reference to the “legendary Celtic fans”. Martin Schneider, writing for Suddeutsche Zeitung, said: “All the Bayern players raved about the atmosphere. ‘Everyone had goosebumps’, said Niklas Sule.” Bayern chief executive Karl-heinz Rummenigge described the game as “football in pure culture, like it was in the old days.”