“Master at work”; Journalist with excellent recent Celtic access shares his findings

Add as preferred source on Google

A journalist who had exceptional access to Celtic during the team’s trip to Japan has shared some thoughts.

The Daily Record’s Michael Gannon was sent to Japan recently to cover the pre-season goings-on.

Celtic spent a week in the country, training hard and playing matches against Yokohama F. Marinos and Gamba Osaka.

While the friendlies were the only proper look that supporters were given of the Hoops, a select few were lucky enough to sample training too.

Gannon was one of those to take-in sessions at both the Nissan Stadium and the Panasonic Stadium, and he’s been sharing his findings, choosing to focus on Brendan Rodgers.

“It was like watching an animal in its natural habitat,” he said on the Record Celtic Podcast.

“He just looked so comfortable and in control. A real aura about him with the players.

“He’s very encouraging, very positive with the players. You could see them reacting to it. Some of the younger players were really puffing their chest out a bit.

“It was intriguing because some of the patterns of play we saw them working on [in training] we’d then see coming to fruition the next night during games.

“When you see Rodgers at it on the training ground he’s just got the feeling of a master at work.”

It is not a surprise to hear Gannon say that Rodgers was in control of training, or that he was interacting well with the players.

Our manager’s aura is also not up for debate. Rodgers will have that with the current crop, courtesy of the way he handles himself and his previous track record at Celtic as well as Liverpool, Leicester City and Swansea City.

We’re dealing with a manager who has played a big part in the careers of Philippe Coutinho, Luis Suárez, Raheem Sterling and more. Who wouldn’t want to listen to him?

Celtic have been slowly improving during pre-season which is the name of the game. Tuesday night’s second-half against Athletic Club was arguably the best we’ve played so far, and more will hopefully arrive on Saturday against Ross County.

Rodgers is an elite trainer. We should start to see that playing out on match days very soon.

In other news, Chris Sutton reckons that Liel Abada has a big opportunity this season