BUILDING BLOCKS
Rodgers admits he is now wise to the barriers he faces in attempt to progress on the European front
ON THE night Brendan Rodgers first detailed his ambition to make Celtic consistent qualifiers for the last 16 of the Champions League, one word appeared time and again in his spoken account of the grand blueprint: Building. Building the club. Embarking upon a building process. This was a long-term construction project, he stated.
It might take three or four years to shape a team capable of going into the biggest arenas in Europe with the belief they were good enough to win and a system that would deliver a conveyor belt of new players to replace any that might be sold on.
The last 16 was pencilled in for ‘two or three years’ time’.
That was on the final day of October 2016, on the eve of a 1-1 draw at Borussia Monchengladbach in the group stage of club football’s premier competition.
Fast forward to the current day and, shouldering an overall club wage bill of almost £60million or not, the last 32 of the Europa League looks a pipe dream.
Rodgers admits his team’s best — even at this level — might not be enough. Dawning realities seem to cast a shadow over every move Celtic make in Europe these days.
RB Leipzig, 2-0 winners in the Red Bull Arena 10 days ago, travel to Glasgow for a Group B meeting on Thursday that carries must-win status for Rodgers and his side. The Champions League disappeared over the horizon months ago thanks to a dismal loss to a dismal AEK Athens in the qualifiers.
Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg have also dished out further defeats on the road in UEFA’s secondary competition.
The Europa League, although no one will actually say it, is in danger of being overtaken by the triple Treble in the list of priorities.
As shown ahead of the Betfred Cup semi-final over Hearts last weekend, Rodgers is now dropping key players from European games to have them fresh for important domestic fixtures.
How did Celtic reach a point where that lofty ambition of reaching the knockout stages of the Champions League, a target reiterated by major shareholder Dermot Desmond, came to resemble little more than a misjudgement of what might be achievable?
Had Callum McGregor buried a golden opportunity with three minutes left in Monchengladbach, the Scottish champions would have recorded their first-ever win on German soil.
Manchester City were unable to beat Celtic over two group games.
If building was Rodgers’ obsession, surely that campaign gave him an ideal foundation to work from?
‘It is the thing that doesn’t happen, though,’ said the manager, coming across as someone who very much wishes he knew then what he knows now. ‘You are not continually building. We build for two years and, then, we change. Now, for me, I see that a lot clearer in terms of where it is at. We were growing and developing from the first year in the Champions League to the second, where we came out of the group and went into the Europa League.
‘We would love to say you keep that group of players together and you add those bits of quality — but, of course, you are losing big quality.
‘You always hope you can replace that. If you don’t, you are at a different start point. That’s where we were in the summer.’
Ah, the summer. That fractious, chaotic, costly period. Stuart Armstrong moved to Southampton for a healthy profit. Deals didn’t get done in return.
John McGinn joined Aston Villa. Cristiano Piccini swapped Sporting Lisbon for Valencia. Rodgers lost patience and, with uncharacteristic ill-timing, lobbed a grenade towards the boardroom during preparations for the AEK tie.
The ensuing defeat, coupled with patchy domestic form and the arrival of some perplexing transfers such as Youssouf Mulumbu and Daniel Arzani, made Rodgers’ Celtic look even further away from a Champions League force than ever.
And then Moussa Dembele left for Lyon with no replacement sourced.
‘We can all look back and we are all captains, but it is gone,’ said the Northern Irishman. ‘We knew what our job was in the summer. We’d had a double Treble, two Champions League campaigns; we knew what we needed. It didn’t happen for whatever reason. We move on.’
Signs at home are positive. Hearts barely laid a glove on Celtic at Murrayfield. Dundee were torn apart in midweek. But Europe is a different kettle of fish, particularly when the opposition comes from the top half of the Bundesliga.
‘It will be full pelt, but full pelt still might not be good enough for us,’ said Rodgers. ‘I think, for a club like Celtic, we have to be at our max in every single facet to have a chance. All the difficulties in the summer made it tough for us.
‘A win on Thursday keeps us alive. We know it’s difficult, but we go into the game with confidence.
‘What maybe gets overlooked is the quality of the opposition. Whatever your expectancy is, your history is, that doesn’t help you now.
You’re playing against good teams and top-class players.’
Of course, Celtic remain well on course to dominate in Scotland. But eventually, Rodgers will surely have to ask himself whether that’s enough to satisfy his own ambitions.
‘I am here and happy in my work and my life,’ he argues. ‘I know what the constraints are.
‘The club have a model that has worked really well for them over the years. Of course, you always want to move it forward. If you can’t, you have to find different ways.
‘I always think you have to find a higher purpose and a social purpose in order to move forward.
‘The higher purpose is that I love working with the players, who have been incredible since I came here. My duty is to help develop them.
‘From a social perspective, I have family and friends and thousands who are Celtic supporters. My duty is to them — to give them the best team we possibly can. Whether that satisfies some who think we can win the Champions League or win the Europa League, I have always said that you can never satisfy everyone.
‘When my time is up here, I’ll know I have done my very best. It is not about satisfying me. My ambition is for the club and players to be the best they can be on and off the pitch.’
When asked whether the last 16 of the Champions League is even a realistic target any longer, Rodgers replied: ‘Of course, it is more difficult and I am a realist. I won’t sit here and give you dreamy quotes.
‘The expectation for Celtic, and for Rangers, is to really push on in European football even though it is extremely difficult. Whether we get there, or how we get there, it still has to be our aim.’