Rodgers calls for Murty to be handed the Rangers job – win or lose
Brendan Rodgers says Graeme Murty has already done enough to earn the right to remain as Rangers manager beyond the end of the season.
And as he looked ahead to pitting his wits against his former Reading colleague today, the Celtic boss insisted Murty might find it nearly impossible to step back down to age-level coaching after his experience of leading the Light Blues’ first-team.
“Has Graeme done enough to get the job?
“Yes, absolutely. Absolutely,” said Rodgers.
“I think he has done very, very well. Your first management job is never easy.
“To take one of this scale (Rangers), and with the difficult situation he inherited, and to stabilise the whole emotions around everything, I think he and his staff have done a very good job.
“From the outside, it looks as if he has achieved that through doing things the way he wants to do them.
“He has brought back a British core to the team, and brought in some players who understand what it means to play for Rangers plus one or two others who have done well for them.”
With Murty having seen his vision bear fruit at the highest level, Rodgers now feels it would be tough for him to go back to coaching the club’s Development side.
That’s a scenario which can’t be ruled out, despite his opposite number’s efforts – first as caretaker and now in the role as manager on a short-term deal – having done enough to guarantee him a degree of loyalty from his employers in the eyes of most.
“I think it would be a very, very difficult to go back. I remember having the experience when I was at Chelsea,” Rodgers continued.
“At the time, I didn’t even know if I wanted to be a manager.
“But when Jose Mourinho got the sack, I was brought in with the first team for a period of time, three of four months or so.
“I enjoyed it all – the intensity, the pressure, the preparation, the highs, and I even enjoyed the lows. That is what comes with the job.
“I was then offered the chance to stay with the first team.
“They had brought in a guy called Henk ten Cate, who had given up the manager’s job at Ajax to come and be the No.2 at Chelsea.
“So that left Henk, Stevie Clarke and then me. And I thought: ‘ Well, I might be the up-and-coming young coach, but I am not going to be doing a great deal here’.
“I have always been a lead coach. So I then went back to the reserve team through choice, and it was great, brilliant, developing players and coaching.
“Things had changed for me, though. Having actually enjoyed the pressure, I then found that I wanted the pressure.
“It was no coincidence that not long after that, a little while later, I became a manager.
“Of course, if you are out of work, then sometimes you have to take jobs which might not be your first pick because you have to work, and you have to earn money.
“But I think in the spell that Graeme has had as a manager, he has shown that he probably has a really good chance of getting the job.
“That then would allow him to build going forward.”
The Celtic manager is, meanwhile, in agreement with Graeme Souness that the Old Firm fixture is the biggest derby in the game.
“Yes. For me there is no doubt about that,” he said.
“When I think back to Swansea City v Cardiff, that’s a real rivalry.
“If I think of Liverpool v Man. United, or Liverpool v Everton, they’re big games.
“But there’s no doubt there’s a difference with this game.
“It’s historical, political football. You name it, it’s all in there. And there’s that extra sense of knowing what it means. “They’re wonderful occasions. “Not always the best games, but thankfully for us, in the majority of them we have played well and got the result.”