Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has held talks with his team to ensure they know he is going nowhere despite media speculation.
After his comments to the media last week, headlines screamed ultimatums and potential departures, missing the point of the manager’s thoughts on Celtic’s failure to recruit well this summer.
With that potentially creating unrest in the Hoops dressing room, Rodgers has moved to reassure his squad that he will not be leaving Celtic anytime soon.
As quoted by The Scottish Sun, the Hoops boss said:
I spoke to the players just to stabilise them a little bit. I think that despite the noise it’s important the players understand the real story. There was never once that I said that I was quitting Celtic.
And there was never once that I said that I’d given an ultimatum to the board. How it gets twisted and wrapped up to make a headline, that’s obviously up to some of you guys. But it was never once said.
What I said was we wanted the squad to be stronger so collectively, in terms of spirit, we’re fine. It’s just something that happens at this stage of the season of course. Like I say, we know we want to strengthen the squad.
It hasn’t been the best of weeks for the club or supporters but everyone knows that a positive result tonight in Greece would completely change the current narrative and provide a serious boost heading deeper into the season. Progress against AEK Athens and Celtic are guaranteed Europe football until Christmas.
Rodgers went on to speak about tonight’s challenge and issued a rallying cry to his players to fight for every inch.
Again, quoted by The Scottish Sun, he said:
We have to go out and fight like hell. We have to run harder and then show our quality. That’s something that we’ve done numerous times and we’ll need to do it here again.
As a footballer, this is the type of game that you relish.
One where you really have to show your face, show your true qualities and come out and fight. That’s something we are determined to do.
Despite all the negativity of late, you can’t say that Brendan Rodgers has ever let us down in UEFA Champions League qualifying so far and we can only hope that we see the battling performance he has asked of his players tonight.
Do you think Celtic will progress past AEK Athens this evening? Let us know in the comments below…