Familiar foes also friendly faces for new boss Brendan
BRENDAN RODGERS may be more used to rubbing shoulders with the likes of Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger but he insists he is looking forward to pitting his wits against Scotland’s coaching fraternity.
The new Celtic manager is acquainted with several Premiership bosses from countryman Tommy Wright at St Johnstone to Hearts head coach Robbie Neilson, whom he entertained at Anfield during his spell in charge of Liverpool.
His old Watford academy manager Mark Warburton will lead Rangers’ tilt at the title, while he is also familiar with Derek McInnes of Aberdeen, Celtic’s main challengers for the past two seasons.
‘There’s a number of very good guys up here,’ noted Rodgers. ‘Derek was very unfortunate at Bristol City.
‘He took over a squad with a load of players.
‘When we spoke on football I always found him very good and I was delighted to see how well he’s done up here.
‘Robbie Neilson came down to see me for a couple of days when I was Liverpool manager. I was really impressed with Robbie and I think he’s done an excellent job with Hearts. Others, Mark McGhee I know and big Tommy Wright, too.’
Prior to meeting the media last Monday, Rodgers read up on the coaching and managerial personnel active in Scottish football and his name alighted on one or two names from his distant past. ‘I made a point of looking at the managers here and I saw Gary Bollan’s name at Forfar,’ he continued. I played against Scotland for Northern Ireland Under-16s and Gary was the captain of Scotland.
‘Also Jimmy McIntyre, he was at Reading when I was there with Tommy. It’s a totally different world for me but it was nice to see familiar names and, hopefully, I will bump into the majority of them.’
Lists will only educate Rodgers so far and he is likely to lean on John Kennedy to fill in some of the blanks in his local knowledge.
Kennedy has operated as a coach at Celtic since his playing career came to a premature end and graduated to first-team level under Rodgers’ predecessor Ronny Deila.
With Chris Davies appointed as assistant manager and Glen Driscoll brought in as head of performance, it’s unclear where the 32-year-old might fit into Rodgers’ set-up but, for now, he will be a source of information.
‘It’s always good to have someone who knows the climate and knows what’s happening,’ continued Rodgers. ‘John was a very good player before he was so unfortunate with his injury.
‘The club have obviously looked after him well — but I think they have looked after him because he’s good at what he does.’