After guiding Leicester City to a Europa Conference League semi-final last year, Brendan Rodgers now has a taste for success on the European stage.
The Foxes defeated PSV to land a last-four spot in April 2022, but ultimately Jose Mourinho’s Roma were too strong and dashed the club’s dreams of clinching a first European trophy.
Rodgers takes great pride in the run to the latter stages and after watching West Ham lift the trophy this year, his motivation to succeed in Europe is even stronger.
The new Celtic boss is determined to right some wrongs when he enters the Champions League with his side this season, after failing to make a mark on the competition during his first stint at the club.
Overall, in his eight European campaigns as a manager with Liverpool, Celtic and Leicester, Rodgers has never reached the last 16 of either the Champions League or the Europa League, and that’s the only blip of an otherwise dominant domestic record during his first time in Glasgow.
The Northern Irishman has already been vocal about how he feels the club is now in a stronger place than when he left it and with that in mind, he insists there is no reason why the Scottish champions cannot go deep into Europe’s elite competition this upcoming season.
Reflecting on taking Leicester to the Conference League semis, Rodgers explained: “That is a realistic aim for a club this size. You only need to see what West Ham achieved this season.
“You always need to have that level of ambition. We have to set ourselves that ambition.
“I mentioned it. Coming back here I think there’s a great level of expectation on myself, purely because of what I achieved before and obviously how I left.
“I can deal with that, there is no problem. My job in the Premier League I took on one of the greatest teams there. Coming back here, that’s what I thrive on.”
To succeed in Europe, Rodgers will need to ensure that he keeps some of his top performers, including those brought to the club by former manager Ange Postecoglou.
The Australian, who is now manager at Tottenham Hotspur, has already been linked with moves for key Japanese duo Kyogo Furuhashi and Reo Hatate, while other Premier League clubs, such as Burnley, are also rumoured to be circling.
Kyogo and Hatate were stand-out figures for Celtic last term as they lifted a historic treble, but other assets such as Matt O’Riley, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Alistair Johnston and Jota will also be on the radar of some top European clubs.
Rodgers has been promised a bumper transfer budget to ensure his team is ready to fight it out in Europe, but he is also confident that the club will not fold early in any transfer negotiations.
He continued: “Over the course of our discussions I’ve seen the market we’re in and how well the recruitment has gone.
“Mark Lawwell has this pipeline of players that are available and I think it’s really impressive what he’s done since coming in and the markets he’s been able to tap into.
“That will continue. That’s where the club is at. Listen, when you’ve got top players at the club they are always going to attract attention elsewhere.
“Those boys have come in and done exceptionally well. Good players will always attract attention. But I don’t worry about that.”
Earlier on Thursday, Celtic completed the first signing of Rodgers’ second spell in charge with the arrival of Norwegian midfielder Odin Thiago Holm from Eliteserien club Valerenga.
Rodgers was adamant that the 20-year-old was very much a signing he was behind, despite the deal being in the pipeline for a while before his appointment.
The former Liverpool boss is well-versed in the, at times, unpredictable transfer market, and he is looking forward to working alongside Celtic’s head of recruitment Mark Lawwell to continue the club’s recent success of unearthing gems from across the globe.
He added: “You have knowledge of certain markets or knowledge that you might be able to get a player that’s just become available.
“I know how I want the team to play. Celtic as a club it’s about offensive, aggressive, attacking football.
“What I am coming into is a team that’s playing that way. We’ll just look at adapt that and make changes.
“In terms of recruitment I am the one that knows how I want the team to play and I have to be involved in those discussions and I will be.
“Some of those markets haven’t been as readily available to some clubs, that’s something Mark has brought with him in his roles.
“I’m thinking of the Japanese market, the Korean market, Australia and out into Asia.
“These were players that were untapped and you’re now seeing other clubs trying to tap into that.”
