Fast-lane gaffers are great .. at least until their wheels fly off
“He has good ability and hopefully can come back strongly from injury and show he has a big part to play.”
Bayo’s arrival, alongside the loans of Oli Burke and Timo Weah, with Odsonne Edouard and Tom Rogic both slated to return by the start of next month, gives Rodgers an embarrassment of riches from middle to front.
But does he resist the urge to change the system – as Rangers’ Steven Gerrard did to accommodate Jermain Defoe – in favour of keeping as many players as he can happy with game time?
He grinned and said: “That’s what I get paid for. I’ve never stuck with one system. The principles of the game are still the same, as is the style. But I like my teams to be flexible, whether that is putting two strikers in the system in different ways, which we have done, playing in different shapes as well.
“What is most important now is how we turn the screw in the second half of the season. You have seen the intensity we’ve played at since the winter break.
“You have to bear in mind that the players we’ve brought in cannot cope with playing three games a week.
“The two young lads have come out of hardly playing any games so you can’t break them.
“Bayo’s body won’t be used to that. Young Timothy as well has hardly played football and is 18. I have to strategically manage when to play them, when they come off the bench, and within that still keeping the team dynamic.
“The boys coming in give us options. We got to the end of the first period of the season and you could see the tiredness, the fatigue in the team. We didn’t have the numbers and lost that intensity.
“The freshness is back. New players br ing new energ y as wel l and competition. The season from now goes quickly and every game matters.”
Football managers are like sports cars. The best ones are blooming high maintenance.
They look great scooting about town and when you put the foot down they can leave rivals for dust.
But every so often they blow a gasket and it costs a fortune to fix.
Scottish football’s top flight is packed with more horsepower on the grid than the Monaco GP.
But when the wheels come off it’s the pits for clubs.
These guys are used to life in the fast lane so if they can only afford spark plugs from a Morris Minor when they are after a big dirty V8 engine, things can go off track.
Nei l Lennon’s impending departure from Hibs is a case in point. Lenny’s a race car in the red zone at the best of times and simply can’t accept being lapped.
Lennon has always looked at Hibs and seen nothing but raw potential.
He got laughed at when he demanded second spot in Hibs’ first campaign back in the top flight – but he was deadly serious. He missed out by a whisker but Fatima Whitbread couldn’t have chucked the toys further out of the pram.
Losing key men in the summer just piled on the frustration and he was having to replace ultra slick tyres with retreads.
It’s not just at Hibs though. They’ll never land another Ferrari like Lenny but there are similar tales emerging in Scottish football.
Celtic’s board are holding their breath as they can sense Brendan Rodgers revving up again.
Like Lennon, he has a vision of a side competing in the Champions League groups rather than just turning up for the nice sandwiches and cushy cheque.
Unfortunately the dream and the reality are different. Celtic might have a mammoth budget on these shores but their wage bill is barely in the top eight in the English Championship.
No one would expect Derby County or Aston Villa to conquer Europe right now but for some reason we slaughter Scottish sides for coming up short.
Rodgers hasn’ t starting banging the tools yet like he did in the summer – but that’s an even bigger worry for Hoops fans.
He said it himself, the second he accepts stagnation it’s over – terminado, he famously said. He’s maybe already at that stage but will freewheel to the summer.
The rest of the division shouldn’t snigger though. There are other high-performance speedsters being forced to drag caravans.
Steve Clarke has defied physics to get his Killie side near pole position.
He has been furiously pedalling the Fli nt stone mobile but he’l l eventually run out of steam. Derek McInnes has spent more time in the garage than Phil Mitchell yet consistently gets a tune out of spare parts.
Steven Gerrard and the Ibrox board are in tune just now but there will come a point when the burning ambitions of the boss will be met with a blank stare rather than a blank cheque.
It’s knackering for club chiefs too, tending to these high maintenance men – it makes them want to go with a solid saloon next time around.
Which is a shame because there’s no greater sight for fans than seeing their souped-up side hitting top gear.
Even if it’s just a fleeting glimpse before the inevitable crash.