BRENDAN RODGERS left behind some incredible memories for Celtic supporters after his tenure as manager, but he also left behind more than a few memorably far-fetched stories. From encounters with Rangers fans in the Clyde Tunnel to pipping Real Madrid to Charly Musonda, the Irishman had the gift of the gab to go with his undoubted coaching quality.
Perhaps his most outlandish tale though involved Danny McGrain, and it might not be the one that immediately springs to your mind.
Rodgers once famously told of how Celtic legend McGrain asked him – referring to him as ‘Boss’ - if he was still wanted at the club when he arrived as manager, to which Rodgers replied: ‘As long as I’m here, you’re here’. McGrain himself, it should be noted, can’t recall the interaction.
For Anthony Ralston though, the comparison Rodgers once made between the then up-and-coming right-back and club great McGrain really takes the biscuit, with the 23-year-old modest enough to admit that as well as he has done recently, he is unlikely to ever be able to lace McGrain’s boots.
Still, there is one area where Ralston has now eclipsed McGrain, and that is in the goalscoring stakes. Ralston scored five last season as he resurrected his Celtic career, and now has 10 in total across his career, while for all of McGrain’s brilliance he only managed nine goals across the 18 years that he played.
McGrain is still indeed at the club, despite the exit of Rodgers, and he will be hearing all about that stat the next time Ralston bumps into him in the corridors at Lennoxtown.
“I hadn’t realised I’ve now scored more goals than Danny – I’ll need to mention it to him,” Ralston said. “He’ll love that!
“I don’t think I’ll ever reach Danny’s levels but at least that’s something I can have over him.
“It was nice to get compared to him, of course, but the one thing I’ve never done is get carried away over things that get said. I keep myself grounded and I gave good people around me to keep my feet on the ground.
“I’m not sure how Danny felt about being compared to me!
“I managed to get a few goals last season and a couple of big ones – I’ll take it. There were some individual moments but the most important is what we did as a team. There were big moments throughout the season and everyone to a man stepped up.
“That’s why we are champions. We need to do it again and it’s about the team rather than individuals."
Celtic have been strengthening that team bond and collective ethic on their pre-season training camp in Austria and the Czech Republic over the last couple of weeks, but they returned to training at Lennoxtown yesterday ahead of their first home friendly of the summer this afternoon against Blackburn Rovers.
Ralston is expecting a decent test in front of a sell-out Celtic Park crowd, and he can’t help but think back to a year ago when West Ham were the opponents in the corresponding friendly last summer. The landscape around the club could scarcely have been much different to now, with new manager Ange Postecoglou scrambling to get a squad together in time for the start of the season.
It became something of a turning point in that process, with the humbling 6-2 defeat proving the end for some players at the club, and a new beginning for the likes of Ralston.
“The West Ham game last year was a bit of a learning curve for us,” he said. “We had a lot of young boys playing and we were getting used to a new system.
“We had to take it on the chin. The gaffer knew we’d kick on and it just shows you how things work out.
“We ended up winning the league. Pre-season is about getting game time and match fitness, as well as gelling as a team.
“It’s about implementing our style of play and you sometimes need a few learning curves along the way at this stage.
“We will up our performance again against Blackburn. The gaffer is looking for us to keep improving.
“We’ve started very well in pre-season and we want to continue in that way.”
The settled nature of Celtic’s squad this summer has made that process all the easier, with the vast majority of players now steeped in the culture of continuous improvement that Postecoglou has fostered at the club.
“It’s been good to get the boys back together and we’ve picked up where we left off last season in terms of the standards we expect to hit in training and in the matches,” Ralston said.
“It’s good the new lads have had a bit of time to settle in and the others from abroad who arrived last year now have got a taste for it over the course of last season. It’s a lot more settled and we are ready to kick on for the start of the season.
“We’ve had some good games under our belt and we’ve shown we are an aggressive team.
“The work will continue this weekend and by the time the season comes we’ll be ready to go.”
