Brendan Rodgers is convinced that he can take the next step with Celtic by securing European football after Christmas – and believes that he can do just that thanks the foundations laid by his predecessor Ange Postecoglou.
The 50-year-old, who managed the club for two-and-a-half seasons between 2016 and 2019, was officially confirmed as Postecoglou’s successor earlier this week before being unveiled at a media conference at Parkhead on Friday.
The Northern Irishman was left frustrated by Celtic’s inability to challenge in the Champions League and felt that he had not been sufficiently backed by the board by the end of his first stint in charge, but those concerns have been assuaged by the club board.
Rodgers explained that throughout his management career, he has usually found himself taking charge of a club that has just been through a difficult patch. But following Postecoglou at Celtic, he feels he has inherited a team that are already set up to succeed.
“Listen, I think first and foremost, your bread and butter is always Scotland,” Rodgers reasoned. “You have to ensure that you have dominance whilst you're here.
“What I would like to think is that we can do something in Europe. It's been well-documented over many years when the club hasn't qualified and we have not got a great record in terms of European football.
“So even though that is a challenge with the resources that other clubs will have in terms of European football, it's a great challenge for us to get Champions League football this season.
“We must look to have European football after Christmas and like I say that's a great challenge for us all. When I look within the club, whenever I had spoken to Michael [Nicholson] and when he came out to present the infrastructure at the club, there were a lot of things in place that we'd spoken about.
“When I was here the first time, there was a brilliant recruitment team in place. I look at Mark [Lawwell] and the work that he's done since he's been here and it's set up perfectly for a club like Celtic to work in the markets that they need to be working in, and you can see the players that have been brought in through his recruitment team.
“That for me is very important and I've come into a club for one of the very few times in my career where it has an upward feel to it.
“I've gone into the clubs who have maybe been suffering, or the teams have been suffering and I've come in to pick it up.
“Here I come in with a great foundation on the back of the great work that Ange did here over the last couple of years and I will look to continue with that.”
