Brendan Rodgers has only been at Celtic a matter months, but in that time has been transformative for the club.
He’s taken them from a tired and uninspired outfit under Ronny Deila to a team that is the pride of the club’s loyal supporters, returning a good feeling that has arguably not been present since the days of Martin O’Neill and Henrik Larsson.
The Hoops are currently flying high in the Scottish Premiership, no team in Scotland has been able to touch them, and remain unbeaten in domestic competition. They’ve already picked up silverware, too, beating last season’s closest challengers Aberdeen 3-0 in the Scottish League Cup Final.
That’s only scratching the surface of why Celtic fans have been in love with Rodgers team so far. Despite his short time in charge, he’s actually already making history as Hoops manager.
Celtic are not only on their way to great success, they’re doing it with a flair and a dominance unheard of in the club’s long, illustrious story.
Here are FOUR ways Brendan Rodgers is already making history at the club…
The gap
On Hogmanay, Celtic beat Rangers at Ibrox and moved 19 points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
That’s the biggest gap between first and second place in the history of Scottish football at the turn of the year. No side has turned the screw on the league in Scotland quite like Brendan Rodgers’.
Yes, they spend more, but that’s been true of seasons in the past, too. This is an unprecedented gap over the rest in Scotland and just one of the ways Rodgers is already making history at Celtic Park.
European achievement
European success is always difficult to achieve at Celtic, even if the goal is to reach the group stages of the Champions League and go no further.
Summer qualifiers are notorious in Glasgow for being easy games to slip up in and that’s never more true for new managers at Celtic Park.
In fact, no new manager in the Champions League-era has qualified for the competition in their first season. Gordon Strachan faltered and Neil Lennon failed, while Martin O’Neill only had the opportunity of the UEFA Cup, but his side exited that by the second round.
Rodgers came in and managed to rally his side from a humiliating defeat to Lincoln Red Imps and beat the champions of Kazakhstan and Israel to reach Europe’s biggest stage at the first time of asking. Again, unprecedented.
Domestic dominance
Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic are now unbeaten in the manager’s first 24 domestic games in charge. Incredibly they’ve won 23 of them.
No manager in the 128-year history of the club has had a better start to their career as Celtic boss. When you think of the names that have graced the club in that capacity over the years, Willy Maley, Jock Stein, Billy McNeill, Tommy Burns, Martin O’Neill, then you realise the scale of the achievement.
He’s well on his way to becoming a legend as Celtic Park boss, even if Celtic don’t improve and continue as they have been.
Incredible stuff.
Century Bhoys
Brendan Rodgers has come to the club at a time when the trophy haul could become a massive chapter in the story of the club. November delivered a small slice of that history, with Rodgers becoming the manager to win the club’s 100th major honour, soundly beating Aberdeen at Hampden in the Scottish League Cup Final.
He also has the chance of securing the club’s fourth treble and, if he sticks around, has the opportunity to take the club on to break the much talked about Scottish consecutive league title record.
Celtic have won the last five leagues in a row and are well on their way to a sixth. That means he’s just four seasons away from achieving the hallowed ’10-in-a-row’, something that, if it happens, would ensure Brendan Rodgers’ name lives on at the club forever and ever.
