Jindrich Trpisovsky upset the odds as he got the better of ex-Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers as Slavia Prague beat Leicester City 2-0 at The King Power Stadium on Thursday night. The Czech manager is highly rated in his homeland, winning two leagues and two cups in his time with the capital club. Most notably, Trpisovsky has been incredible in Europe for Slavia, punching well above their weight against teams such as Nice and Bayer Leverkusen.
His side have also given games to Barca, Borussia Dortmund and Inter, gaining plaudits and attention from potential suitors. The manager, 45, is known for his aggressive style racking up a win rate of over 70% but in Europe, he is known for rigid defence and fast counter-attacking football, flowing from back to front. He is also handy with developing players, Tomas Soucek, arguably West Ham’s POTY, is an example of that.
He will receive his first experience of playing Rangers in the Europa League and it may be the perfect audition for the Celtic job. The opportunity to progress into the quarter finals with Prague and dump out Steven Gerrard’s side in the process. However, it is not out with the realms of possibility.
The manager will want to test himself, whether that is in England, Germany or elsewhere. Although, Celtic can offer an interesting proposition to the Celtic headhunting committee. Trpisovsky is a left-field choice, he might fancy the chance to rebuild Celtic into European candidates whilst competing for silverware as well as putting himself in the shop window for a potential Premier League job.
Trpisovsky will likely already know how big Celtic are, with Slavia’s most famous boss an ex-Celt in the 1920s and 30s thanks to the coaching of Scottish manager Johnny Madden, who played for Celtic in their first ever match.