THIS IS THE JOB OF MY DREAMS

Rodgers signs Celtic mega deal

CELTIC last night completed a stunning managerial coup with the capture of Brendan Rodgers on a 12-month rolling contract.

The former Liverpool and Swansea manager is poised to earn a cool £1.7million a year at Parkhead, becoming the highest-paid manager in the club’s history.

Set to be formally unveiled to media and supporters at a press conference on Monday afternoon, Rodgers will be handed a £15million transfer kitty to take the club back to the Champions League.

‘I am absolutely delighted to be named Celtic manager,’ said the 43-year-old. ‘This is genuinely a huge honour for me.

‘I have followed Celtic all my life and to be given this fantastic opportunity and to be part of such a truly great football club is a dream come true. I

TWENTY-THREE years ago, upon learning that a genetic knee condition would prevent him from fulfilling his dream of playing professional football, Brendan Rodgers resolved to fight tooth and nail to carve out a career as a manager.

Then just 20 years of age, and a move from Ballymena United to Reading the sum total of his experience, it would have been easy to dismiss him as just another wide-eyed dreamer.

In between weekend run-outs for non-league Newport and Witney Town, however, Rodgers listened and listened good. He travelled to Spain of his own volition to study coaching methods at myriad clubs. He learned Spanish and Italian and pleaded for someone, somewhere to give him a break.

Tommy Burns, then manager at Reading, granted him that opportunity in the Royals’ youth academy — an act of kindness that Rodgers has never forgotten.

Word of the young man from the Northern Irish village of Carnlough’s diligence and talent soon reached the ears of Jose Mourinho. Rodgers was made Chelsea youth team manager, then reserve manager.

Within two years, his dream of becoming a first-team boss in his own right was realised at Watford before a return to Reading beckoned.

But it was at Swansea, where he moved in 2010, that his star really began to rise meteorically. Playing a brand of football that had substance and style, Rodgers took the Welsh club to the Premiership via the play-offs at Reading’s expense.

A subsequent 11th-placed finish proved it was no flash in the pan. It was hardly a surprise when Liverpool came calling and they finished seventh in 2013. He was only a Steven Gerrard slip away from beating Manchester City to the title the following year.

The departure of brilliant striker Luis Suarez to Barcelona wounded both Liverpool and Rodgers enormously.

They finished sixth the following season and, after starting the most recent campaign poorly, the parting of the ways came last October after a 1-1 draw with Everton.

However, six months on the sidelines have not diminished his reputation as one of the shrewdest of modern managers.

Not since the appointment of Martin O’Neill in 2000 have Celtic managed to pull off such a spectacular managerial coup.

Doubtless when he met with Dermot Desmond last week, the footballing philosophy Rodgers has honed since taking those bold steps as a 20-year-old was key to the Irish billionaire being won over.

Some 180 pages long — Rodgers is a fan of committing his thoughts to paper — it will form the template for a Celtic squad seeking to continue its domestic dominance while trying to re-establish itself as a European force to be reckoned with.

The blueprint explains how he wants to play, the way in which he wants to develop young talent and his vision for attacking football.

‘First and foremost, it’s about a vision, an understanding of where you as a player are going,’ Rodgers explained in Michael Calvin’s book Living on the Volcano.

‘I need to know where you want to go with the club and with the team. Have a clear vision, a clear philosophy of how you work and then have an inherent belief in it.

‘I first need them to understand the commitment of what it takes to work every day.

‘I don’t need players motivated, because sometimes you get up and you’re not motivated. But if you’re a life-saving surgeon, you work on commitment.

‘If you do five operations a day and save people’s lives, you might be motivated for the first four but the fifth guy needs you like the first four. So you need to commit to your work. No matter how you feel, it’s about being committed.’

In that sense, Rodgers is said to lead by example. Those who were invited into his office at Liverpool’s training ground at Melwood could attest to the visual evidence of the extraordinary lengths to which he would go in order to give his players a miniscule edge.

Reams of colour-coded files held the secrets behind what made his side tick. The tactical intelligence, the hunting in packs, the pace on the counter-attack.

Each training session he oversees is planned meticulously, with a four-day schedule designed to lead the players into game day.

A keen historian of the game, as well as a lifelong Celtic fan, Rodgers will know exactly what buttons to press with a support he has often stood among.

For him, it’s the small things that matter. At Liverpool, he made a point of restoring the traditional red nets.

The oldest surviving This is Anfield sign — which hung over the tunnel from 1974 to 1998 when Liverpool were winning 25 major trophies including four European Cups — was tracked down and given pride of place again.

The playing of You’ll Never Walk Alone was delayed until the players and — more importantly — the opposition were on the pitch.

With Ronny Deila’s long boat of Norwegians now gone, Rodgers’ choice of backroom staff will be fascinating. At Liverpool, his relationship with psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters was vital to the club’s success.

Between them, their ability to convince the squad they had he beating of any club in the land took them within an ace of the title in 2014. Two years on from Deila claiming his side would deliver a high-tempo game, Rodgers will belatedly seek to deliver it.

When Celtic’s training resumes at Lennoxtown in a few weeks’ time, the squad can anticipate practising the ‘five-second rule’ in which they press the living daylights out of their opponents.

Unlike Deila, who clearly wasn’t a sufficiently big name for some Celtic players from the outset, Rodgers’ status in the game will command full respect.

Those players will be given a chance to prove they have what it takes to meet his standards but, after 23 years in the game, the new manager of Celtic is long beyond the point of wasting his time on lost causes.

He’ll know what buttons to press with a support he has often stood among