Packie Bonner reckons Brendan Rodgers has returned to Celtic older and wiser following his four years back in England.
And the tricks of the trade he’s picked up will be needed when it comes to splashing the cash this summer. The former Hoops No.1 knows there’s no real need to tinker too much on the home front with the Parkhead squad packing plenty of punch for the Premiership.
However, there will need to be some tweaking done by the returning gaffer if they are to make an impression where it truly matters. Rodgers is determined to make a fist of the Champions League and Bonner believes there will need to be a different approach from his gung-ho style last time at the club and the wild ride under Ange Postecoglou. The Parkhead favourite said: “It’s going to be fascinating. Brendan knows he has a winning squad with that intensity running through it.
“But Brendan used to like to play a more measured, passing game. The interesting thing is to see if it will change. The fans loved the way Ange’s team played. Brendan might say, ‘Just keep doing what you are doing lads'.
“Brendan fits a similar profile to Postecoglou but he will make changes to the way he plays. Ange had his wingers high and wide, he had inverted full-backs, and two midfielders pushed into the spaces and lines further up the field.
“Brendan, in the past, was slightly different. He played with full-backs who overlapped, the wingers were almost inverted and he almost had two holding midfielders when he was in England. Do the players adapt to that or does he buy in one or two who will resurrect that way of playing?
“Brendan had success in England and not had success. He had to adapt the way he played with Leicester and was more counter attacking. Building the game from the back and perhaps being overexposed, particularly in Europe, does he adapt a little bit? He’ll have to be flexible to compete. He’s been there before and was on the end of some big defeats against Barcelona and Paris St-Germain.
“So he has that experience. He’s an older and wiser manager now. There’s still the philosophy but he needs to be adaptable. That was my slight criticism of Ange. I understand what he was doing – he wanted to give his players clarity and certainty. But if he was still in charge, he would have to have been more adaptable. And it’s the same with Brendan because you want to get results to stay in the competition.”
Celtic are sitting on a pile of cash after the £25million Saudi sale of Jota on top of Champions League group stage dough being about to pour in for the second season on the bounce. Parkhead chiefs told the London Stock Exchange last week they were rolling in it – and the dosh is burning holes in the punters’ pockets.
Rodgers is taking his time to assess the squad, though, having only added prospects Marco Tilio and Odin Thiago Holm so far. But Bonner believes it will be quality rather than quantity in the returning manager’s mind to gear up for continental competition. Speaking to the BBC, the Republic of Ireland hero said: “With the type of money on the table, I think Celtic would have sold Jota even if Ange was still there. Regardless of where the money has come from, it’s a great bit of business. I would expect Brendan to bring in one or two.
“I’m sure Brendan has a list of players he will have been thinking about, even if he got into another job in England. Whether he can go to that market and whether they will come to Scotland is another question.
“He’ll have an A, B and C list of categories of players but he also has to look at the players he has, see where the deficiencies are and who could fit into the squad and team. He certainly doesn’t want to disrupt a harmonised squad, that’s for sure.”
Rodgers doesn’t need to make wholesale changes but he could be looking at bolstering his defence. Cameron Carter-Vickers has hooked up with the squad in Portugal following knee surgery and it’s understood he is targeting next month’s curtain-raiser. But Bonner has identified the central roles as an area up for debate as well as questions over Joe Hart’s role in goal.
He said: “Carl Starfelt has improved and he had a decent season. It’s still a bit unbalanced because he’s right footed playing on the left. Yuki Kobayashi, for me, hasn’t got enough pace or height about him but you’d like to think he’ll improve. That’s an area he might be in the market for.
“It’s going to be a big season for Joe. Joe fitted in really well into Ange’s team. He made some mistakes along the way, which all keepers will do, but I don’t think he was asked as many times to build the game the way maybe Brendan would want. Is he capable of playing from the back? Pep Guardiola came into Manchester City and didn’t allow him to get the opportunity because his analysis was he couldn’t do it.
“He’s done exceptionally well coming up here but the part of the game we all know is about 70 or 80 per cent of your actions now is with the ball at your feet. Is he capable of doing it under Brendan?”
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