Brendan Rodgers on Dermot Desmond’s ‘passion, energy and enthusiasm for Celtic’

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The Celtic Star

·20 dicembre 2024

Brendan Rodgers on Dermot Desmond’s ‘passion, energy and enthusiasm for Celtic’

Brendan Rodgers today revealed that he met with Dermot Desmond along with Celtic colleagues including CEO Michael Nicholson and Finance Director Chris McKay in Dublin this week as speculation starts around the Celtic manager being set to sign a lucrative new contract at the club…

Arne Engels & Brendan Rodgers during the Premier Sports Cup Final victory over theRangers at Hampden on 15 December 2024. Photo AJ for The Celtic Star

This was NOT mentioned at today’s Media Conference at Lennoxtown although the Celtic manager did reveal some details about Tuesday’s meeting in Dublin.

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Brendan Rodgers, Manager of Celtic, lifts the Premier Sports Cup trophy after the team’s victory during the Premier Sports Cup Final between Celtic and Rangers at Hampden Park on December 15, 2024. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

“His passion, his energy and enthusiasm for Celtic, it’s unswerving. His commitment to the club is incredible,” Brendan Rodgers on Dermot Desmond…

Here’s everything that was said at the Media Conference at Lennoxtown earlier today ahead of Sunday’s trip to Tannadice which remarkably will actually be Brendan’s first time there as Celtic manager!

Q: An enjoyable week, after the weekend?

Brendan Rodgers: “Absolutely, when you win an epic game like that, it is a great feeling. The players have done so, so well and a nice feeling for them and for everyone.”

Celtic celebrations after winning the Premier Sports Cup Final between Celtic and theRangers at Hampden on Sunday 15 December 2024. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Q: You mentioned before that it’s important that the players recognise and enjoy their success, isn’t it? Is that something that’s always in the forefront of your mind?

Brendan Rodgers: “Yes, I think celebrating victories at the right moment and the right time is very, very important. Otherwise, why do you do it? It was so important, especially with the free week and playing on a Sunday, we could do that. We gave them a couple of days just to recover physically and mentally and enjoy the victory. We’ve been hard at work since then. Is that partly because it’s changed days with some celebrations? 30, 40 years ago, you’d have had them to celebrate and you wouldn’t know if they’d come back into training when they were supposed to. It’s a two-way trust, you can trust them to go away and celebrate, but also look after themselves and not push. Yes, and listen, not everyone did.

The Schmeichel crew with the cup. Photo Kenny Ramsay

“Obviously, people celebrate in their own way, but I think what I said to the players was that you deserve to celebrate and also celebrate with your family because they deserve that for everything they do and the sacrifices they make. The wives and the girlfriends and the parents and the kids. It’s so important that they can celebrate these moments and especially in such a game of that magnitude.

Celtic supporters during the Premier Sports Cup Final victory over theRangers at Hampden on 15 December 2024. Photo AJ for The Celtic Star

“And also for the supporters, it was so tense for them in the game. If you talk about a Celtic-Rangers game and the levels of anxiety, it doesn’t get much higher than that. In terms of the game, the way the game flows, getting into extra time, getting into penalties. So, that tension and anxiety that all fits around that game, for the players and the supporters to celebrate that, they have to do that. That’s what this game is about. So, yes, and then we draw a line under it and look to our next game.”

Dermot Desmond prior to the Celtic vs St Mirren Cinch Premiership match at Celtic Park on May 20, 2023 (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

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Q: The same must go for them. As you’re writing off that tension and anxiety, it must be 100 times more for yourself. Did you try to celebrate it and how did you?

Brendan Rodgers: “How did I celebrate it? No, I went back to the stadium. I had a nice cup of drinks with the people there and the staff and everything, which was great. I went back home. You don’t sleep well after games like that. So, because you go back, you watch the game, and you try to analyse and review. So, Monday was more sort of a down day with family. On Tuesday, I flew to Dublin to have a meeting with Dermot, me, Michael (Nicholson) and Chris (McKay) and the staff and just talked about January and what we normally do. And then I got back from that and I watched the B team final. So, and then obviously back into work. So, for the manager and the coaches, we’re always looking forward. But, of course, after the game and the day after, you have to celebrate.”

Celtic CEO Michael Nicholson at Dingwall on Sunday . Photo Vagelis Georgariou

Q: Does that meeting suggest that when every victory has gone, immediately, you’ve got to keep looking forward and planning and progressing?

Brendan Rodgers: “I think we said before, you don’t wait for the future to plan for it. So, it has been the aspect of here. We have a board and a major shareholder who are so invested in the club and the success of the club and how they lead the club. You only need to look at over the last couple of decades, how the club has run and organised, which is at the very, very highest level of any business, how it can be. But there’s also a real passion for the team, clearly, to do well as well. So, it’s so important. Dermot is absolutely entrenched in the whole, you know, his whole role of Celtic as a major shareholder, but also as a supporter. So, you know, the first thing he does get up in the morning is think about Celtic. And the last thing at night, he thinks about Celtic. And so there’s always that connection. There’s always that great level of intelligence on our board and expertise and experience. And that’s what we try to use to the best of our advantage. So, for us, it’s always about planning. It’s always looking forward. And obviously, the key people within that talking about it is important.”

Alfred Dunhill Links Championship 2024 Dermot Desmond on the 18th tee during the final round of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship 2024 on the Old Course at St. Andrews Golf CLub, Fife, . 06/10/2024. Picture Fran Caffrey / Golffile.ie

Q: He doesn’t get a lot of thanks and praise, Dermot, but I think over his 30 years, I was actually looking at this, Dermot has had 45 trophies during his tenure. It’s 38 per cent of Celtic’s total. I mean, he gets this kind of absentee landlord thing. But as you say, his commitment is pretty thorough, isn’t it?

Brendan Rodgers: “Oh, his passion, his energy and enthusiasm for Celtic, it’s unswerving. His commitment to the club is incredible. Yeah, he’s not one that wants to be out there. And rightly so, he’s not going to be out there. You don’t see his face all the time, but that should not mean that he’s not interested. Because I can tell you from myself, having worked here twice, I know the passion and the love he has for Celtic and his club and as a supporter. So, yeah, these types of things sometimes come up if the team loses a game. But it’s all a myth. He’s so unswerving in his commitment to Celtic, everything he gives to it. And obviously, the support I’ve had from him over my two spells has been absolutely incredible. So, yeah, it was nice really to get together with him and spend some hours just looking at where we’re at and how we go forward in January and beyond.”

Kieran Tierney during the Carabao Cup Quarter Final match between Arsenal and Crystal Palace at Emirates Stadium on December 18, 2024. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Q: You mentioned the future there, but you’ve been linked with Kieran Tierney through this week. What kind of memories do you have of having him as a player previously at Celtic?

Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, we’ll always be linked with top players – especially players that are one of us. So, Kieran was an instrumental part of a really, really successful period when I was here. And his talents then took him on to another challenge in the Premier League. So, yeah, we’ll be linked with lots of names, Kieran, obviously, naturally because of his situation. But for us, we’ll only ever tell you when we sign a player, once he’s signed.”

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Daizen Maeda and Greg Taylor celebrate during the Premier Sports Cup Final victory over theRangers at Hampden on 15 December 2024. Photo AJ for The Celtic Star

Q: In terms of Greg Taylor, who plays in the same position, is there any update on his contract situation? Is he a player you’d like to see here beyond summer? Do you expect him to be here beyond summer?

Brendan Rodgers: “I would hope so. I think I’ve said it a number of times, he’s so important for our squad, Greg, because when you want to build a squad, it’s never just about starters. It’s about the whole squad and you want to adapt to that. So, he’s a player that I’ve really enjoyed working with so much on and off the pitch. And I’ve said it before and I repeat, I really want him to stay. So, I’m hoping that between the club and his representatives, we can organise a deal. But I also understand he’s 27 now, this will be one of the last big contracts of his career. So, he has to make sure that everything is right. But what I do know is I really want him to be here. I love working with him. I really enjoy the aspect of seeing him every day because he’s up for every training session. And for me, he’s really important for us.”

James Forrest in action during the Premier Sports Cup Final victory over theRangers at Hampden on 15 December 2024. Photo AJ for The Celtic Star

Q: In terms of team news, we saw James Forrest in a protective boot on Sunday after the final and in crutches. How is he and how is the rest of the squad for Sunday?

Brendan Rodgers: “Yes, James will be probably six weeks. So, yes, he had a real sort of bad blow in the game. And to be fair for him to carry on, he showed great courage to do that. But yes, sadly, we’ll miss him for up to that length of time. So, Alistair Johnson, we just need to have an eye on him as well over these next couple of days. If he misses out this weekend, he’ll be fine for the next game. But we just managed that injury that he had. We’ve had a few bugs and bits and pieces going about. So, hopefully, they can tidy themselves up over the next couple of days and we have most of our players available for the weekend.”

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers during a press conference at Celtic Park on Tuesday November 26, 2024. Photo Andrew Milligan

Q: What’s been your take on some of the fallout from Sunday?

Brendan Rodgers: “I’ve only seen little bits of it, if I’m totally honest because I’ve been busy doing other things. But yes, it doesn’t surprise me. I’ve been involved in 20 games now and there’s always a narrative of something after the game, whether someone should have been sent off or not, or whether it was a goal or not, or whether it was a penalty or not. Even when the penalty’s offside. So, all these things get thrown into the mix. So, I don’t really think a lot of it, to be honest. It’s there. It’s a talking point. My only interest was for us to be there and come out of Hampden with the trophy.”

Celtic celebrations after winning the Premier Sports Cup Final between Celtic and theRangers at Hampden on Sunday 15 December 2024. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Q: Is that important, that your players get the credit they deserve for winning that trophy?

Brendan Rodgers: “Winning is hard – and it sometimes has made me feel, probably here, that it’s seen as something easy. It’s not an easy thing to do. And it’s certainly not an easy thing to do repetitively, what this team have done. So, if you think of over this calendar year, this team has only lost twice. Once when we’ve been down to 10 men and a Borussia Dortmund game against the Champions League finalists where we were outclassed on the night. But the mental strength and the mentality and the consistency show what this team have done, and I think the supporters recognise that which is the most important. So, as I said, we hope we can continue that to the end of the season and then get into 2025 in a good way as well. But it’s always going to be that way. And like I said, there’s always a narrative that surrounds these games, whichever it is. But what’s most important is for the manager and your team is you go there and you win. And that’s what we’ve done.”

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Celtic celebrations after winning the Premier Sports Cup Final between Celtic and theRangers at Hampden on Sunday 15 December 2024. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Q: I was going to say, is that important? The culture you’ve bred here, that even when there’s adversity, when things go against you, you’re going to make real decisions. You do your job, you get the job done. That seems to be the kind of mindset here.

Brendan Rodgers: “Yes, it’s the strength of mindset because, in the pressure moments, this team delivers and has delivered. And that’s what we did last weekend. Cup finals are never great games sometimes. They can be a bit bitty and we weren’t quite in our flow. And that’s a credit to Rangers as well because they defend it well and work very, very hard. We had a high percentage of the ball, scored good goals, and gave away disappointing goals from our perspective. So, you have to respect that. But the pressure moments, this is a team that has delivered. But it’s something that they do every single day. They work to that. And that’s something that makes you really pleased with as a manager. But it’s something that comes from the mindset every single day.”

Q: VAR has been in the spotlight this week, but do you think VAR in general has got better the longer it’s been in the game here now?

Brendan Rodgers: “I just think there will be issues around it and there always will be. I think we all recognise that it’s still ultimately a human decision. I think it’s also worth pointing out the human side as well for the officials. I think it all gets lost and all of that, but there’s a human element to it as well that we’ve got to think about with the guys. So, we all know I will make mistakes, everyone will make mistakes. You can see actually in the incident why they came to the decision because the early foul wasn’t a penalty. The contact, then the pull, is still not on the line. The argument is, well, it’s continued on and gone into the box and obviously Willie (Collum) and the guys who specialise in refereeing have come out and said it’s a penalty. But you can see why the officials didn’t give it. But like I say, there is a narrative on all of these games where penalties are sent off. So, this was the narrative for this one. For me, I’m only worried about winning and we won the game. We deserve to win the game because we dealt with the pressure really well and we’ll move on to the next trophy.”

Daizen Maeda with the Premier Sports Cup after Celtic’s victory over theRangers on 15 December 2024 at Hampden Park. Photo Kenny Ramsay

Q: You had one at Motherwell earlier this season when Daizen Maeda should have had a penalty and given a handball against him. Do we just have to accept that these imperfections are in with the bricks with that? It can’t be perfect as long as human beings are operating on it?

Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, absolutely. I think that Willie and how he’s trying to take it and to be transparent and everything else is only good because there’s lots of talk for years that there’s not that. So, he’s coming out and he’s trying to be open and honest and hopefully helpful to the staff. But there will always be that because it’s still down to interpretation. We’ve got good officials up here. They’re doing their very, very best. Some of them aren’t full-time. A lot of them aren’t full-time. That’s the reality. But they’re still giving everything to make the best decisions and they won’t always be the right decisions. So, yeah, it will always be a part of it. Like you said, the Maeda case, the Hearts game, one of the games that we have lost, that was cleared up afterwards. That was a penalty that we should have not had. But yeah, these things happen.”

Tannadice Park, Dundee,

Q: Just looking ahead to Sunday, it’s quite unusual. You play a team for the first time in the Premiership, just before the New Year. What kind of challenge are you expecting from Jim Goodwin’s team?

Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, a tough challenge. I’m really looking forward to going there. I’ve never been to Tannadice, not faced them as a manager. But I know the history of Dundee United growing up, following Celtic and what they were back then and how tough a place it was to go. But I expect a tough game as well. I think Jim’s organised his team ever so well. They mix the game up, how they play. So we go there, we know that we have to be really good in the game and that’s what we aim to be.”

Stephen Welsh of Celtic before the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic FC and Dundee FC at Celtic Park on October 30, 2024 . (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Q: Stephen Welsh, he might be on his way out in January. Is there anything you can say about that?

Brendan Rodgers: “Nothing to add to that. Stephen again, very much being a part of the furniture here, a great member of our squad. Naturally, we will have some players in our squad that will want to play games. And Steven may well be one of those players. But he’s a brilliant servant for this club. What he gives, the likes of him and Tony (Ralston) plays a little bit more than what Steven does. But these guys are still absolutely critical to the culture of this club. But of course, there’s sometimes they then have to think about themselves, and they’ve got to think about their careers. So I’m pretty sure there’ll be some movement with some players looking to get game time and play. We all respect that.”