It’s already the biggest week of the season for Celtic and Brendan Rodgers and we aren’t even out of August yet.
Celtic face Kairat Almaty in the second-leg of the Champions League play-off tie where access to £40m and the chance to play in Europe’s elite competition is at stake.
Brendan Rodgers will be desperate to have Celtic rubbing shoulders with the likes of Barcelona, Inter Milan and Real Madrid once again.
After that, Celtic face Rangers in the first Glasgow Derby of the season where the Hoops have the chance to open up a nine-point gap to the Ibrox club at the top of the Scottish Premiership table.
So there are plenty of positives for Rodgers and Celtic this week. So it is little wonder Ally McCoist and talkSPORT host Jeff Stelling reacted with disbelief when they heard a question being asked about the Hoops boss’ future at the club.
Ally McCoist rejects notion that Brendan Rodgers is under pressure at Celtic
Speaking ahead of the Kairat clash, McCoist was asked if Celtic don’t make the Champions League proper, would Rodgers be under pressure at Parkhead?
McCoist wasn’t having it and said on talkSPORT, “Oh, come on. Surely not. No, no chance man. Brendan’s playing the game. Brendan’s clever. He’s not quite been Nuno-esque with his comments, but he’s been throwing the odd line in here and there to let everybody know that he wants more.
“And so he should. He’s well within his rights. Absolutely 100% well within his rights. But is he under pressure? No.
“I was listening to Martin [O’Neill] yesterday. Martin’s absolutely spot on. This new format, I think, suits teams like Celtic in the respect that you’ve got an opportunity, if you qualify for the final 36 you’ve got an opportunity, certainly at home, to play teams of a similar standard to you.
“And we saw that last season, Celtic did exceptionally well. Would it be a blow if they don’t go through tonight? You better believe it will be a blow. There was no way it would put, I think, Brendan under any pressure in terms of his job, not for me.”
Jeff Stelling says Brendan Rodgers will decide his own Celtic future
Rodgers has won four trophies out of six and came within a whisker of winning a treble last season.
On top of that, the Celtic boss got the club out of the Champions League phase for the first time in 13 years.
So when the question was put to Stelling, he replied, “No. Look, I think Brendan Rodgers will leave Celtic when he wants to leave Celtic.
“I don’t think he’s under any pressure whatsoever at all regarding Kazakhstan.”
Celtic should have enough in their locker to see off Kairat tonight and make the league phase of UEFA’s top competition.
But to do that, Rodgers must create history in Kazakhstan and record Celtic’s first-ever win in the country. If he does that, then the pressure immediately piles onto the board to back the manager and that is something every Hoops supporter wants to see.
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