MEAN GREEN MACHINE
Complacency was the enemy but Rodgers wouldn’t let it halt his history makers
FROM England or Wales, it looks easy. The club with the biggest budget wins the league, Scottish Cup and Betfred Cup two years running and a nation collectively shrugs.
However, employing a boxing analogy that might have been appreciated by pre-match MC Michael Buffer, Brendan Rodgers outlines why back-toback Scottish Trebles are more difficult to win than people think.
Jock Stein couldn’t do it. Neither could Sir Alex Ferguson. Nor Billy McNeill, Graeme Souness, Martin O’Neill or Dick Advocaat.
‘It isn’t the punches to the head and the body that stop you,’ said the Celtic manager. ‘It’s the pats on the back.’
There were times this season when the pats on the back led to Celtic developing a stoop.
Days, like a 0-0 draw with Motherwell at Fir Park in March, when they fell into the trap of thinking the sight of their bus on the driveway was enough.
There are games when that might be true, but Rodgers is hell-bent on preventing a poisonous complacency slipping into the bloodstream.
The first team in Scottish footballing history to win a double Treble are tireless, hard-working, sometimes thrilling.
Yet the word which describes them best is relentless.
That trait mirrors the mindset of Rodgers — and the day his team lose the motivation to reduce rivals to dust in big games is the day their dominance of Scottish football comes to an end.
Some of us suspect the arrival of Steven Gerrard as manager of Rangers will help in that regard. Yet Rodgers makes a reasonable point when he suggests the new Ibrox manager has to craft a team capable of finishing second first.
‘It’s not a conversation,’ said the Celtic boss. ‘Talk about Aberdeen — Aberdeen were second. Derek (McInnes) has done a brilliant job. Talk about them.’
It seemed wiser, in the circumstances, to talk about Celtic. In music, there is an ailment known as Difficult Second Album Syndrome.
A new band sells millions of units with their first album, win awards and find themselves hailed as the saviours of rock and roll. What do they do for an encore?
There were times this season when Rodgers’ Celtic had a difficult second album. When they had all the chords but couldn’t quite work them into a masterpiece. Their final points tally in the league was less than Ronny Deila’s in his second season. They dropped daft points at home to bottom-six teams St Johnstone and Dundee.
All of this gave rise to some angst amongst Rangers and Aberdeen fans whose teams’ failures to launch a coherent challenge was heightened by a familiar refrain: ‘Celtic aren’t even that good.’
Yet the poor days for Celtic could usually be put down to all those pats on the back.
Motherwell entered Saturday’s Cup final buoyed by the knowledge they had drawn twice with their opponents in the league.
Yet, in both of those games, Rodgers’ efforts to drain the poison of demotivation fell on deaf ears. On Saturday, the motivation levels were as clean and toxin-free as a vegan on a health-farm retreat.
One of the great mysteries of the season is Callum McGregor’s failure to catch a break on one of the many player-of-the-year shortlists.
The midfielder, the most improved player in Scottish football, has become a big-game player.
There was a Champions League goal against Bayern Munich. A Europa League strike against Zenit St Petersburg. Key strikes against Rangers in the league and Scottish Cup semi-final.
He smashed Celtic into the lead after 11 minutes on Saturday, with the kind of cup-final goal that is dreamt about by kids in the playground.
Motherwell will rue their failure to take control of the situation after Tom Aldred’s defensive header from a Mikael Lustig cross landed on the edge of the area. While others dithered, McGregor pounced. He took one touch then rifled a right-foot rocket into the roof of the net from 16 yards.
In games like this, Celtic’s dropped points at home feel like a mirage. An aberration.
Olivier Ntcham scored the second after 25 minutes, before performing a spectacular double somersault in celebration.
He had fired a Moussa Dembele lay-off on the edge of the area into the bottom right-hand corner, a nick off the heel of Cedric Kipre arcing the ball beyond the outstretched right hand of keeper Trevor Carson.
The flow of traffic felt relentless then. Motherwell risked a day of embarrassment.
Yet the Fir Park side would reflect later on a terrific chance for striker Curtis Main in 27 minutes.
A lovely back flick from Ryan Bowman created time and space but a snatched left-foot shot sailed over the bar.
Motherwell had only scored two goals in four meetings with Celtic all season. Over-run in midfield, they now needed their biggest turnaround in this fixture since Scott McDonald on Helicopter Sunday in 2005.
Stephen Robinson’s side were better in the second period. Main crafted a fine effort in 47 minutes when he made space from a Liam Grimshaw cutback to force Craig Gordon into a fine save. Yet Celtic looked to be holding something in reserve. Just in case.
Carson’s tremendous double save denied Ntcham the third goal in 71 minutes. Dembele should have had a penalty for a pull on his shirt.
The introduction of Gael Bigirimana produced Motherwell’s best spell of the game.
Chris Cadden was impeded by Dedryck Boyata as he burst into the area 11 minutes from time, with Robinson sure the Belgian should have seen red.
Referee Kevin Clancy — who had a decent game — flashed a yellow and Bigirimana curled a terrific free-kick against the crossbar.
Motherwell’s last opportunity was gone.
History can be a dangerous business. On Saturday night, Celtic fans did their best to drink it all in and, for many, the hangover will take some time to shift.
They know, as their manager knows, that their team are setting standards they can’t possibly maintain forever. Yet Rodgers feels compelled to try.
‘I’ll be sat in Majorca and it will all kick in,’ admitted the Celtic boss. ‘I get away Monday and will rest for a bit, which is important.
‘You have to come out and rest and recover because that gives you the energy to go again.’ The Champions League thrashings remain the blot on the landscape. The stick that people use to beat a Scottish game, with miniscule broadcasting revenues, around the head. Reaching the Champions League group stage again is Rodgers’ first challenge.
The next is halting the five and seven-goal thrashings to Europe’s elite and beating teams like Anderlecht at home.
‘We have to invest and improve,’ he admits. ‘But the reality is we can’t spend fortunes as there’s not masses of money there to do that.
‘But the players will come out of this confident. As a manager, I now have to push them harder...’