CELTIC captain Scott Brown heaped praise on new Hoops boss after meeting with the Irishman in his London home. Rodgers invited the club captain to outline his plan for the season and the continued dominance of Scottish football that the pair have in mind.
Speaking to Celtic TV, the 30 year-old said: “I didn’t cook so it was okay! It was a great meal. We sat down and chatted for a good couple of hours about the past and the future and what we’re looking to do, and he was spot-on with everything.
“It’s going to be exciting times. His ideas and philosophy are great and it’s going to help me and a lot of the lads in the changing room. I’m looking forward to it.
“He spoke about a lot of things, such as responsibilities, talking on and off the park, bringing the lads as close as together as possible, making sure we have a good team morale and that we work hard on the park.
“The main thing is to get as fit as soon as possible for the Champions League qualifiers. We need to try and get through them to reach the Champions League as that is where this club deserves to be and hopefully we will be there this season.
“It’s going to be good for us because he’s going to chop and change formations, and we’re not just going to be one-dimensional so that will be something to keep everyone on their toes.” Taking an apparent swipe at the 4-2-3-1 system utilised by Ronny Deila in the past two seasons leading to many fans believing that the Norwegian lacked a plan B. However, the signs from Rodgers are encouraging. Especially with the perfectionist in new assistant manager Chris Davies, who with Rodgers at Liverpool, prepared detailed dossiers on opponents.
Speaking about Davies, Brown, who hadn’t met him, paid his new Assistant manager a respectful welcome. “I have heard a lot about him and when I spoke to the gaffer, he was buzzing about him so I’m sure we will get on well because if the gaffer speaks so highly about someone like that, then you don’t take that lightly.
Brown, who’s recovering from injury that stopped him participating in the closing fixtures of the season continued in his praise of Rodgers. “It’s a huge name for everyone and everyone will learn a lot from him and that’s what we wanted, and Peter and the club have done really well to get him on board.
“He’s managed huge clubs and almost won the league with Liverpool a couple of seasons back. To have 13,000 fans come to the stadium to see him is something some clubs don’t even get on matchdays and it shows how well-respected he is by the Celtic fans.”
