With his team now, looking at a sixth hatch in nine years, Brendan Rodgers knows about a narrative development. Whoever says that trophies lose their brilliance when collecting them becomes a question of routine.
The Celtic manager understands why it is a theory that could gain ground. However, he maintains that reality could not be more different.
“Obviously, when you are on this winning race, this era in which we are, then it can be judged tedious and all the words used, but it is absolutely not,” he said.
“I can tell you that, of all the clubs in which I have been, it is the greatest and most under pressure work, and it is because you cannot afford to lose a football game.
“When I left Liverpool the first time we came here, because of my work there and what I appreciated, I knew that my next job had to be the pressure, otherwise it would look like a vacation.
“Coming to Celtic and living it as I did for the first time, it was absolutely no vacation. It is the pressure, therefore, deals with that, I think I am prosperous in this situation.
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“So, then returning here, and especially how I returned these first six months, it was not everything singing and everything dancing.
“It was back … Well, you have to show yourself here, and that’s what I like.
“Any team there, they will get a pass for a draw, they will get a pass for a victory. Sometimes we do not even get pass for a victory. We can get a victory and be hue.
“So this relentless nature is what I like in work. The expectation of the support base is to be always better, to always improve, which makes you move forward.
“You can never rest on your laurels here.
Rodgers has no problem with the ruthless nature of the environment in which it is immersed.
“Every day of your life, you must be there, you must be really concentrated, you must be prepared.
“You know that the other team will give these 10 to 15% physically and mentally. Each time you operate as a Celtic player, a manager, you manage a final scenario.
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“This is why you see players coming here, very good players, but they have trouble because of the mentality necessary to survive. It is a real challenge.
It is clearly not for everyone. At this stage of the life of Rodgers, however, the incessant pressure of work is exactly what he wants.
“I think I need this challenge, absolutely, especially in this period of my career and what I have experienced now.
“I can’t be good if I’m comfortable and I would never have been here.
“I like this challenge to prove that people are wrong. There will always be something else to improve or prove in the role. If I don’t have it, I find it somewhere and that’s what allows me to be the best possible.
He did not have to look far for an advantage since the dust started to settle on the title victory last weekend in Tannadice.
The Rodgers record in the matches against the Rangers remains surprising. He only lost one of his first 20 derbies through two spells.
Although his unassailable position of his team in the Premiership assured that there was no real drama when his team underwent consecutive losses against the Ibrox men in January and March, you would better believe that he was injured by them.
“It’s a game that is a question of pride. We have proven our point during this season in terms of level of performance and consistency.
“We are fighting for the pride of our team and also for our supporters because we have lost the last match in Ibrox, rightly.
“We shouldn’t have lost the home match, but we did it, and we have to do the right in the last match.
“I hear here of meaning games. There is never that. There is never a Celtic-hearted game devoid of meaning, nor anything in the game.
“There is everything in this game. Everything. So we have to prove it on the ground.
Before the 3-2 home defeat against the Barry Ferguson team in March, Rodgers offered a view of the rangers as a team that lacked consistency. Nothing he has seen since has changed this opinion.
Rodgers thinks that Barry Ferguson has united Rangers fans and the club since his care
“I think what Barry has done was helping to connect supporters and the club,” he said. “He is a player who had a great career there.
“ The challenge for Barry and her staff who are likely is that it is a different generation of player with whom you work when they would have played and even trained several years ago.
“So the generation of players is now completely different and they will require greater standard and consistency.
“They played well in the games, then other games they wanted to do better.”
Rodgers remains perplexed that the annual debate on an honorary custody of the newly crowned champions still causes supporters since he does.
“It’s not a rule, it’s the first thing I would say,” he said
“And I think that when two clubs in rivalry are so emotional, it’s always difficult for the team that does not. So, this is the one I am relaxed anyway.
