Brendan Rodgers has offered some insight in to some behind-the-scenes work Celtic carried out this summer.
It’s been a busy old period for the first-team since Rodgers returned in mid-June. Together, they’ve travelled to Portugal, Japan and Ireland, and started the competitive campaign.
In the lead-up to the Ross County opener, both Rodgers and captain Callum McGregor seemed to allude to behind-the-scenes work that had taken place over the summer.
The pair both used similar phrasing around the ‘pitfalls of success’, suggesting that the Celtic squad had covered that topic during pre-season.
And it seems like they’ve done more than that too, as Rodgers shared some information on the off-the-field work.
“Within the team element, we did some workshops whilst we’ve been away to understand each other,” he said in a fresh Celtic TV interview.
“To understand what the strengths of this squad are, where the improvement can be made, what the challenges are going to be.
“So all of that type of work goes in to understanding what their thoughts are as individual players and as people.
“I believe life is about relationships. I always want to take the time to build that relationship.”
These are the kind of issues that supporters rarely find out about, so it’s really interesting to hear Rodgers explain what’s gone on over the summer.
Naively, this writer assumed that most of the team’s cohesion would be gained either on the pitch or in downtime after training. But it seems like the players have had some organised off-the-field work too.
Again, this just reinforces the feeling that this squad has much more to achieve. Many treble-winning teams would be forgiven for taking their foot off the gas the following season.
But at Celtic you need to keep winning, regardless of what has gone before. Rodgers could be the perfect appointment in that regard.
In other news, former Celtic midfielder Olivier Ntcham has found his next club
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