The morning after Celtic hammered Rangers, Brendan Rodgers has explained what people don’t understand about what it’s like to play for both clubs.
The Celtic manager is enjoying his second spell at the club and already won a double in his first season and in early into his second year at the club, Rodgers has already put a marker down after his team’s dominant win over Rangers at Celtic Park.
Celtic now have a healthy lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership and speaking to Ally McCoist on talkSPORT this morning, Brendan Rodgers explained how playing for both of the Glasgow teams is something that people outside of the city don’t really understand.
Some Premier League players can’t cope playing for Celtic
Speaking about the Glasgow Derby win, McCoist said he was impressed with the spine of the Celtic team as he told Rodgers how his big players always step up for the Hoops boss in the big games.
Rodgers told talkSPORT, “Yeah, that’s a fair assessment and you’re absolutely right, I think people who don’t understand the state up here in terms of Celtic and Rangers.
“Because there have been many players that have come up here, they’ve played in the Premier League, and they’ve arrived into Celtic or Rangers, and they’ve found it really, really difficult to deal with the pressure.
“And then actually, they go back into the Premier League and have a good career and play well. So it’s how you deal with the pressure up here at both these clubs.
“So and then if you look through the spine of our team like you say, Kasper Schmeichel is still a world-class goalkeeper. You get Cam (Carter-Vickers) who marshals the defence very, very well.
“Callum MacGregor is an unbelievable captain. A real humility, but plays with quality. And then obviously, like you say, Kyogo goes through the middle, his pace and threatening behind is second to none.
“So yeah, but it was very much a collective performance yesterday.”
The mentality to play for Celtic
Celtic fans have seen plenty of players come to the club from down south and struggle (and sometimes crumble) when they put the green and white Hoops on. As have the Rangers fans with their own club.
But for Celtic specifically, many fans will remember how Tony Cascarino came up from Aston Villa and struggled in 1992. The Irishman moved to Chelsea and then Marseille where he was prolific in France.
Harald Brattbakk is another who came as a free-scoring striker from Norway who was scoring in the Champions League before his big move to Celtic and struggled in Paradise. Although he did score one of the biggest goals in Celtic’s history in 1997.
Teemu Pukki is another who also failed to make the grade at Celtic and was one of the best strikers in Denmark with Brondby, the English Championship with Norwich City and is also making a name for himself in the MLS with Minnesota United.
And there are many more like that. Mikey Johnston is a most recent perfect example of that. Players can have all the talent in the world but if they can’t cope with pressure, they generally find life at a club like Celtic and Rangers extremely difficult.
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