Celtic v Falkirk – Everything said at Brendan’s Media Conference

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The Celtic Star

·15 August 2025

Celtic v Falkirk – Everything said at Brendan’s Media Conference

Brendan Rodgers spoke to the mainstream media ahead of this evening’s Premier Sports League Cup clash against Falkirk at Celtic Park…

The Irishman also addressed the Hoops’ Champions League play-off encounter against Kairat Almaty next week, transfer updates regarding incomings and outgoings and the reasoning for not postponing next Saturday’s game versus Livingston.

You can read Brendan’s full quotes from yesterday’s media conference below…

Almaty Central Stadium. Capacity 23,804. Almaty, Kazakhstan

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Q: Brendan, you’re heading to Kazakhstan on Champions League qualification duty. How do you feel about that?

Brendan Rodgers: “Great! Probably like everyone else, but listen, if we’re honest, I think everyone would have preferred the closer team and not so much of a journey. Listen, it is what it is. We’ve been there before, and the first leg we want to make a real push to set a standard in that game on Wednesday, and then we go there the following week and look to qualify. Such a huge game, big game and when it comes, we’ll be ready for it.”

Q: What did you learn from your previous experience in terms of making sure the logistics don’t make the football match any harder?

Brendan Rodgers: “Well, I think that operationally we were very, very good. I think there’s no stone unturned to make sure the preparation’s right. We’ve got a brilliant operations team here, with Brendan O’Neill, who leads that. Wherever we go, the pre-season, everything, he and his staff, they do a brilliant job along with the club in organising and making sure flights and hotels and everything. So logistically, we’ll do everything we possibly can to make the journey and the preparation, because that’s what it’s all about. You’ve got to try and prepare for such a mammoth journey, so the preparation is key for that. After this actual press conference, we’ll have another sort of meeting on that. But the club will do everything they can, I’m sure, to ensure the preparation is what we would want.”

SLOVAN BRATISLAVA – KAIRAT ALMATY Players of Kairat celebrate during third qualifying round of UEFA Champions League football match between SK Slovan Bratislava and Kairat Almaty. Bratislava, Slovakia, August 12, 2025. IMAGO / Branislav Racko

Q: You mentioned before your previous experience as well, really making the home tie count as well. Does that change the dynamics slightly, putting that extra emphasis on that, or is that the same as you would be doing anyway?

Brendan Rodgers: “I think you would do that in any case. I think you have your home leg first, and you want to play well. And I think over the two legs, I think we had, we had the game against Astana, we had a really good result, 5-0 in that one. And I remember the Be’er Sheva game, we were 5-0 up at a point in that, and I think it ended up 5-2. Our job in the first leg won us the second leg. So yeah, there was a wee bit of a fret in that game which shouldn’t have been. You know, we were 6-1 up at halftime in aggregate, and all of a sudden, they get three goals from nowhere, and then it ends up what, 8-4, I think the aggregate, which makes it look really, really comfortable. But there was a period in that second game, in the second half, that it wasn’t great. We’ll get there prepared and ready, and as I said, it’s such a huge game, so we’ll be really focused on that.”

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Q: There’s been so much emphasis on what the squad will look like at the end of the window. What about the date of these games, obviously, come slightly before that. Do you have that date in mind to try and change the squad before then? Would you be confident that you would have any incomings before then?

Brendan Rodgers: “Hopefully would be the answer to that. We have right up until I believe it’s the day before the game to change your squad, so hopefully that can be the case. I think we’ve said it all along, and I don’t want to dwell too much on it. It’s been constant and I’m not clever enough for you guys to say the same thing 20 times differently. So we hope that we can improve it, and hopefully by then we will do.”

Celtic Manager Brendan Rodgers Celtic v St Mirren, Scottish Premiership, Celtic Park, 3 August 2025. Photo Stuart Wallace, IMAGO / Shutterstock (The Celtic Star)

Q: I spoke to you, Brendan, about the Livingston game before; you chose not to postpone it. Is that still the case, even though you’re due to face that mammoth journey afterwards, you’re still going to play that match?

Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, we’ll play the game. We looked at that and decided that we wanted to play that for a numbers of reasons. Obviously getting players up to speed and fitness and yeah, we’ll have a good squad of players here and if I need to rotate it and change it, I can do.”

Q: Just in terms of the transfers. Is it a frustration on your part that there are not the movements in the window that you would like in terms of that forward area? Are you becoming frustrated by this?

Brendan Rodgers: “No, I’m philosophical about it. I think that the club has always notoriously done business towards the end of the window. And I’ve said it before, I think that all managers and coaches want the players in as soon as we can because preseason is for preparation and you want to be as prepared as you possibly can be. With the players we get in or not, what I know is that the players that are here have, you know, what has gone unnoticed a little bit is that we’ve made a really good start. You know, we’ve had two really good wins, played well. I know we’ll get better. But I can’t knock the the performance over the two games to get the results. And sometimes that has been clouded a wee bit in all this sort of negativity around the transfers. So I’m really just trying to focus on the guys that are here. There’s lots of stuff going on in the background and then hopefully we can come out of the end of the market in a in a good place.”

Celtic Manager Brendan Rodgers Celtic v St Mirren, Scottish Premiership, Celtic Park, 3 August 2025. Photo Stuart Wallace, IMAGO / Shutterstock (The Celtic Star)

Q: Should we expect a strong team tomorrow night then, just to get the boys up to speed for the European tie?

Brendan Rodgers: “It will be a strong team, whatever. You know, if I do make changes, I think that we’ve had players that have come back a little bit later, so they need to get up to speed. There are others that won’t play. I also have to maybe think Livingston, you know, rather than throwing players in for maybe a first game there. So the team will be strong and I’ll have a good bench if I need to affect it.”

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Q: Is Kieran getting up to pace?

Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, I just think that’s going to be time and I just want to take it steady with him because he’s full on in training, his mentality’s unbelievable. It’s also considering that he hasn’t played a lot over the last couple of years. So then just throwing him into every single game for 90 minutes, that’s not really going to work for us. But I’ve been so pleased with how he has come in, how he’s settled and he’s getting between 60 and 70 minutes and just working his fitness level.”

Aberdeen v Celtic – Brendan Rodgers and Kieran Tierney after the Scottish Premiership match between Aberdeen and Celtic at Pittodrie on 10 August 2025. Photo Stephen Dobson PSI (IMAGO)

Q: Do you have to hold him back and just ease him in, does he sit some things out in training or how do you handle it?

Brendan Rodgers: “He understands it now. He’s obviously got a great maturity to him now and has probably sensed maybe he’s been his own worst enemy as it were, because he is so committed and he is so full on. But you can see his maturity as an experienced player now, that in those moments where you do maybe, you know, if you’re doing six exercises and you’re taking him out of the last one, then he understands it much better now. Even though he’s inherently a guy that gives everything and it’s never 80% or 70%, it’s 100% always. But I’ve been so pleased to have him back and he’s showed up really well.”

Celtic player Kieran Tierney iin action during the pre-season friendly match between Celtic and Newcastle United at Celtic Park on July 19, 2025 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Q: Is the long-term benefit that you hope you’ll get him to the point where he’s maybe as fit as he’s ever been in his career, long-term?

Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, I think what we want to try and increase is his level of strength as well. There’s parts of that that we feel that we can help him and improve and help in that robustness. Sometimes it’s just collagen as well. It’s just how you’re made up. Like Kieran, you know, he’s not breaking down because he’s not doing his work, he’s an unbelievable young professional, who in spells has had really, really some bad luck. And in others then you just pick up natural injuries. Then there are certain players in their career that’s just so unfortunate, just their body makeup, their collagen means that they are injured quite a bit. But we’re very confident and him coming back, not even at his prime absolutely yet, but we want to help him and manage the process through for him, and that’s our duty here.”

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Q: And for tomorrow night’s opponents, how pleased are you to see the progress that John McGlynn has made with his team over the past couple of years?

Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, I’m so happy for him as a guy and his footballing. I think what John has demonstrated in his time since he’s gone back into management that talent and technique will always override power. Unless you have the resources and the money to get power and technique and talent, then it’s sometimes a difficult ask and especially when you’re trying to play football. And I look at his teams at Raith and I look at what he’s done here now at Falkirk and bringing them up, and you see how they play and you see the attitude and energy they have in the game and the technical qualities that they have in the game.

John McGlynn, Manager of Falkirk FC acknowledges the fans after the Premier Sports Cup Quarter Final between Celtic and Falkirk at Celtic Park on September 22, 2024. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

“Him and Paul, his assistant, they’ve done a brilliant job and I am just so pleased for them because at the end there was a wee bit of a nervousness last year at the end, but they got the job done and I watched the game and it was a great night for them. He deserves all the accolades he gets. He’s been absolutely fantastic and like I said, they’ve demonstrated their game idea and how they want to play and they have an inherent belief in that. And that football philosophy has led Falkirk to get promoted for the first time in years. So well done to him, his staff and his players and for us, we don’t underestimate them tomorrow night. We’ll be ready from the first whistle to be really aggressive in the game.”

Q: There’s been a bit of talk about Daizen Maeda this week. Is there any update on his contract talks, there’s been some suggestion he might be looking for a move in this window. Is there anything on him?

Brendan Rodgers: “He’s obviously got a couple of years. There have been discussions and that going on in the background, but I don’t have any sort of updates on it. You know, he’s been here four years, he’s progressed every year he’s been here and finished off a brilliant season for him. I think what you always get with Daizen is 100%. He’s not quite up to full speed yet, but no, I don’t know of any developments on there.”

Daizen Maeda of Celtic during the Scottish Premiership match between Aberdeen and Celtic at Pittodrie on 10 August 2025. Photo Stephen Dobson PSI-IMAGO

Q: Are you quite confident he’ll be here at the end of the window?

Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, yeah. I’m fairly confident of that, yeah. As could be.”

Q: You played Daizen through the middle last season, is that something you could revisit?

Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah. I’ve always said that he’s a player that can play in there. We’ve had other options before in the past. And yeah, he’s always shown when he’s gone in there that he can play the role really well. So, it’s always an option for me.”

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Q: Brendan, this is today’s silly question. There was a bit of furore on Gordon’s show, a number of people had phoned in anxious that you didn’t wear a tie at Pittodrie on Sunday. Was there any reason other than you chose not to wear a tie?

Brendan Rodgers: “I know. It’s unbelievable. Someone has told me this here. I’m supposedly sending a message. It’s unbelievable. I’m basically like everyone else. See when it’s really hot, you either have to take off your jacket or your tie. And see when it’s really cold, you wear a jumper. So I remember last year I wore a jumper. People says, he’s sending a message. What message? It was bloody freezing. I was standing with a jumper on and a big coat and it was up to there and I’m fine.

Aberdeen v Celtic – Celtic Manager Brendan Rodgers during the Scottish Premiership match between Aberdeen and Celtic at Pittodrie on 10 August 2025. Photo Stephen Dobson PSI (IMAGO)

And last week, there were two grounds that I’ve realised in my career that are absolutely boiling, right? If you get it at the at the time and the sun’s hitting your dugout. Pittodrie and Preston. I went there once before and I got absolutely roasted on the on the day and Pittodrie’s the same because the sun comes and it hits you. So I thought, well, I’ve either got to take off my jacket or take off my tie. So I took my tie off. I don’t know what message that is. I’m just warm. This is modern football, hey? So, I’m sorry if I’ve wasted people’s energy and time on being wrong, but I was just a wee bit hot and that’s why I was no tie.”

Celtic Manager Brendan Rodgers with Adam Idah at full-time. Final score Aberdeen 0 Celtic 2. Scottish Premiership, Pittodrie. Stuart Stuart Wallace/Shutterstock

Q: Tie be back on tomorrow night then?

Brendan Rodgers: “I’ll look at the temperature! It should be back on tomorrow. Yes, listen, I’ve always been the shirt and tie man. My father always brought me up, be respectful. When he sent me on trial to clubs when I was younger, 13, 14, he would send me away in a shirt and tie. From that, I’ve always represented him and respect level. So, it’s always shirt and tie where it can be.”

Q: Just going back to the logistics for Almaty. Last time, was it the Rolling Stones’ plane you got last time? Is it Madonna’s plane you got the last time? What’s the plan for this, this one?

Brendan Rodgers: “Hopefully a plane that gives you the chance to relax and get rest and recovery. When you travel that far, you know, then again, there is a serious side to it. There’s preparation and not just for the game that you’re going to, but the game you’re coming back for. So you always want to ensure that you get the best possible plane that allows you to relax and recover and recover the best you possibly can. Whoever’s plane it is, I don’t really know, but as I said, the club will make the best efforts to get the best one.”

Q: Any injuries or knocks?

Brendan Rodgers: “No, we’re in a good place. Players have been working well and yeah, looking forward to the game. So nothing injury-wise.”