Brendan Rodgers: I want to be Old Firm peacemaker

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers is all smiles during a training session at Lennoxtown. Picture: Craig Foy/SNS

Just 24 hours after pledging to remain at Celtic for the long-term, the Parkhead manager’s thoughts turned to what he hoped his legacy could be following the first league title win of his managerial career.

Sunday’s 5-0 win over Hearts secured a sixth successive Scottish title for Celtic, who now have designs on a historic treble. But Rodgers insisted he’d had nothing stronger than a cup of tea to celebrate the previous evening before addressing ambitious plans to adopt the role of a peacemaker. “I would hope I could promote a new rivalry,” he said.

With two games yet to come this season against Rangers, including a Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden a fortnight on Sunday, Rodgers
believes he has already seen evidence of a new era in relations between the foes, whose rivalry is mixed up with sectarian issues that are as much society’s problem as football’s.

“It is much better,” said Rodgers, who noted that “in the main” his treatment from Rangers fans to date has been “very, very good”. With reference to what he perceived as improved relations between the clubs’ fans, he added: “Hopefully it grows year on year, that’s important. As the generations go through, it’s important that it does.”

Rodgers grew up in Carnlough in Northern Ireland and like compatriot Neil Lennon, one of his recent predecessors at Celtic, knows as well as anyone how a mix of politics, religion and football can form a potent brew. But Rodgers has seen the improvement in the situation in Northern Ireland for himself and hopes there can be a less bitter divide in Glasgow too.

“It’s a big change at home,” he said. “It’s a different world to the one I grew up in and the one I have been around. That’s what you want.”

While accepting he is defined by success on the field, Rodgers would like to believe he is able to play a more profound part on life in Glasgow, specifically when it comes to fans’ behaviour.

“Guys like myself growing up where I grew up and the episodes that went on over many years, I have always hoped that I could promote, if I came into this job, [the idea] that it’s OK to be a mad, passionate Rangers supporter and love the club, and be from Northern Ireland, be from Glasgow, and be from wherever. It’s alright as well to be a passionate Celtic supporter and live wherever and have that real intense rivalry. But you can be together and live together and have a closeness.

“OK, you might need to separate on matchday or whatever, but it’s alright, you know,” he added.

“For too long, there has been a rivalry there that, for different reasons, for political reasons, has held back, certainly where I was from, for many, many years. If I can be an advocate of the other side to that, the positive side to that, I would see that as my job.”

Rodgers was photographed with a Rangers-supporting inpatient when visiting a Belfast hospice on Christmas Day last year and is conscious such issues as health transcend football rivalry, however fierce.

“That’s why I say titles and all of that are great, but there are other things and I always look at human factors and human needs,” he said. “That would be the best legacy for me.”

“What can I do and influence? That’s equally as important,” added the Celtic manager.

“You find it [the bitter rivalry] at lots of other clubs.

“But ultimately, it’s about behaviour. If you can behave in a way where you can be passionate about your team, but you have got to respect your opponents always.

“We can live together in peace, which is important.”