Q: Do you allow yourself to enjoy that moment when you pick up the trophy for the Premiership? Do you try and park that enjoyment ahead of the Cup final?
Brendan Rodgers: “Yes, I’ll enjoy it on Saturday, of course, after the game, and hopefully we can play well and win. Irrespective, it’s a special day, and it’s a mark of the club and everyone involved becoming a champion on that day. Not just the players, the manager, this is the staff, this is everyone involved at the club who played a huge part in sacrificing what it takes to be consistent and to work very hard to win a title. So naturally, we can enjoy that, and then obviously we can get ready for the Scottish Cup Final.”
Q: Do you ever think people will truly understand that guys like us, or even fans, what goes into winning a title? We speak to you on a weekly basis, we speak to you on a Saturday, but the hours that must go on behind the scenes on the training ground and in rooms like this, do you think people will get a proper understanding of how much actual work goes into it?
Brendan Rodgers: “I think it’s very difficult to envisage, unless you’re actually in and doing it. I think that naturally, when you are consistent like we are as a club and winning titles and playing well, I think naturally people just shrug their shoulders at it and think it’s commonplace and it’s going to happen, but there’s so much work that does go into it from early in the morning to late in the evenings and you’d think right the way through the season. Just the consistency of it all, and that’s always the mark of anything.
Celtic players celebrate winning the league. Dundee United 0 Celtic 5 at Tannadice Park on April 26, 2025 (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
“Clearly, we have talent, but lots of teams you see in football have talent, but it’s that drive to ensure that the standard of performance is there every single day and for that, that needs to be driven, and that needs a vision and that needs a focus. So yeah, it is very hard to understand, and I don’t expect people to either, but it’s one that we’re very focused on delivering that and I know with my experience that that’s a mark of what you do every single day and your training mentality and your focus and your professionalism and your sacrifice and all these things that allows you to become a champion.”
Q: That professionalism that you’ve instilled in the squad and the players takes care of a game like tomorrow night, the league’s won, the outcome of the game isn’t especially significant for you. Do you think the mentality within the squad helps them deal with that kind of occasion?
Brendan Rodgers: “Well, I think the players have been absolutely brilliant this season in their consistency, but like everyone in life, you need reminding. There are moments in the season when you need to remind, but my job is really to support and aid the players here. They’ve got, as I said, the standards of performance that we look to drive through on a daily basis. Of course, how you train, you then take that into your games, so that relentlessness is there and, of course, it’s just guiding and shaping that.
Celtic title celebrations. Celtic Champions 2025. Dundee United v Celtic, 26 April 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star).
So, this group of players, they’re a very honest group, a very talented group, a very driven group. They’ve got a wonderful captain who’s been here for a long time who sets the example in the training. I trust him 100 per cent and how he leads the team. The culture is so important, and there’s a winning culture here, but a winning culture that’s all about understanding what it takes to win consistently. So that’s been created here over this period.”
