Brendan Rodgers seems to be savouring lunchtimes with the lads.
But I wouldn’t be making a meal out of it. It doesn’t really matter how you approach it. So long as you scoop up all the gravy when it comes to the trophies. I was interested to read the comments this week from Matt O’Riley about a freshness and openness now around the camp at Lennoxtown.
The midfielder was talking about how Rodgers was happy to blend in with the squad during meal times and shoot the breeze. O’Riley suggested it was a change in environment which seemed to hint at the fact that didn’t happen under Ange Postecoglou. There was always this underlying suggestion the Aussie wasn’t really one for mixing with the group on a day-to-day basis. John Kennedy’s interview during the week said as much when he commented on how Rodgers’ approach involved “being around people more socially.”
It got me thinking about how some of my managers from the past approached things. The most obvious one for me to refer to when talking about Celtic would be Martin O’Neill.
Now the situation would have been slightly different back then because we didn’t have Lennoxtown in those days. We’d get changed at Celtic Park and then jump in the cars for training at Barrowfield. Martin was a bit like Ange. He would hardly be around the lads doling out the brown sauce when it was lunchtime back at the ground.
He kept his distance. It was John Robertson and Steve Walford who were around the boys most of the time and I used to like the fact Martin wasn’t matey-matey with all the players. To be honest, no manager I ever played with really sat and had lunch with the players.
We’d have meals in the same room at Blackburn as staff and management Kenny Dalglish and the coaching team on Friday nights before games, for example. I wasn’t fussed either way. The O’Riley line was a throwaway. Glasgow being Glasgow, some folk cooked it up into something it really wasn’t.
They tried to claim it was a dig at Postecoglou. I didn’t think so. If it was, I’d be disappointed. But I didn’t read it that way. I thought it was just him being honest. This always happens when a new manager takes over. When Gordon Strachan took over at Celtic, there were players who started to infer at the start of pre-season his training was better than Martin’s.
I hated this as it was wrong. I suppose players are entitled to their opinion but it never does any good to have someone say one way is better than the other. I felt it was disloyal to Martin who had given certain players the opportunity.
Let’s be honest here. Ange did a great job with Celtic and Brendan did a great job before him. Players have their own opinion on how they want managers to treat them and normally the first thought which crosses their mind is they want the manager to pick them in the first 11. If you are in the team, he’s the best manager ever. If you are not getting picked, he’s an a**ehole. Coaches and managers have different methods. The justification is in the team being a success. That’s all that matters.
Man-management matters. Getting selected matters. Being prepared by that manager matters. What the manager said and what we did on the training ground mattered. Eating energy bars with the boss does not. It can sometimes be important to be a bit aloof as managers getting too close to players can cause a problem. Especially if you eventually have to leave them out.
Ange said himself getting too close to the players was not something he was comfortable with so his mind could be clear when it came to picking a team. For him, it seemed to mean there would be no clouding of judgement. Everyone is different, though. Brendan is clearly an alternative to that. And you certainly can’t say his approach doesn’t work just as impressively with his trophy haul.
Leadership comes in many forms. Being in charge must be a tough business and there is no right or wrong way to go about it. Clearly, Rodgers prefers a more personal approach around the squad than Postecoglou. It was always something that was discussed during his first spell at the club. That he would be close with the players and speak to them about a variety of things.
I’ve no issue with that. It works for him. He must know just where the line is to be drawn between him and the group. It’s obviously not a problem to him because he’s been at enough high-profile clubs and done such good work that he knows what he is doing. You don’t have the success and the CV Rodgers has if you don’t have an expert way of dealing with your players and knowing exactly when to be their pal and when to give them a metaphorical kick up the tail.
Postecoglou certainly didn’t leave any unwashed dishes when it came to collecting silverware. He polished off the rest of Scottish football and you’d imagine his hunger wouldn’t have waned had he stayed. In the end, an appetite for the fancy restaurant in the Premier League and a seat at a top table in north London proved too big a lure.
Rodgers has been there. He’s now back in the building with his own opportunity to scoff Scottish football again while also lapping up the continental dessert at the Champions League table. It doesn’t matter if your manager is passing the salt across the table or eating in his office. So long as Celtic keep chewing up the opposition and spitting them out in the manner they have been doing, fans aren’t concerned about table manners.
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