Getting buy-in from senior players

Delighted to see Brendan Rodgers is down to business at Lennoxtown, three weeks before the players return for preseason training. It’s interesting that he arranged an early opportunity to meet Scott Brown over a meal, and that this was made public.

Getting buy-in from senior players was one aspect of the job Ronny Deila allegedly didn’t achieve. The rights and wrongs of this can wait for Ronny’s autobiography, although you may wish to express an outsider’s opinion. All that matters to Brendan is that no one is able to speculate about the same issue on his watch.

There’s not much a manager can do three weeks before training starts than eat dinner with the captain, scout players and watch videos. I expect Brendan to have seen every minute of every Celtic game last season by the time players get back; there is lots to learn. In particular, what went wrong at the back to a team which broke defensive records in each of the previous two campaigns. You may wish to express an outsider’s opinion.

Those in the know warned us that blue collar crime is particularly difficult to prosecute, and so it’s transpired. Only Craig Whyte now faces trial in the Rangers fraud case, which saw remaining charges against Duff and Phelps’ administrators David Whitehouse and Paul Clark dropped at the High Court in Glasgow this morning. It’s far from a satisfactory outcome.

Good to hear the losing Scottish Cup final manager, who was left with some bears in Japanese forest for seven days by his parents, has been found safe and well, even if he has nothing to say for himself.