BRENDAN RODGERS will wish his fellow-Irishman Oran Keaney the best of luck – AFTER Celtic hopefully beat St Mirren in Paisley on Friday.
The Hoops boss is expecting the Saints’ new manager, who has taken over from Alan Stubbs, to have his team fired up for the encounter.
Rodgers said: “Obviously, I’m very disappointed for Alan and how quickly in the season he’s lost his job. He’s an excellent coach and manager, but he’s now gone and Oran Kearney has come in.
“He’ll now doubt look to work closely with the squad to get a bit of momentum going. We expect a tough game and we will prepare for that.
“I’ve never met Oran, but I’ve been aware if his work back home in Ireland. I think when he first went for the job in the summer through a mutual friend of ours he wanted a chance to speak and we talked briefly for the first time.
“He’s clearly ambitious to move on. He did a very good job at Coleraine and after Friday, I’ll wish him all the best.”
Rodgers added: “I normally use a few days of the international break to reflect on the previous round of games. It’s been nearly three months, so it’s been such a busy period. I like to have thinking time to go away and take stock of everything that’s gone on.
“When you’re trying to be creative as a manager you need that time to reflect. I try to take that opportunity to do that when possible.
“We still have a group of players who have been here working. We’ve all met up now and we’re preparing for our next batch of seven games inside four weeks.”
* Rodgers was speaking to this week’s Celtic View, on sale now.
