Q: The quality you’re talking about, is that something you can instil into players, or does it have to come from within to have that drive to keep going even though you’re so far ahead?
Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, it comes from within. It comes from within. My experience in managing many, many games and that’s why the top players, like I say, like Callum and James Forrest and these guys, they never look for an easy game. Ever. Their ambition or whatever level they’re playing for this club, they go into the game and it’s not an easy game they’re looking for.
“They know the expectation and they know the desire. So that there, ambition and desire, come from within. But like I say, I have to look at myself with it as well and really analyse, am I giving them that bit that’s needed at this point?”
Celtic Manager Brendan Rodgers in technical area at McDiarmid Park. St Johnstone v Celtic, Scottish Premiership, 06 April 2025. Photo Stuart Wallace IMAGO/Shutterstock
“As I said, my intention always when I was here and come to the point is to sprint over the line and I’ve done that before and I know what it looks like, but I don’t like that side of it in this team because for Celtic, it’s winning the best way you possibly can. Not just chugging your way over the line. So, we have no excuse.
“We have no excuse. It’s not about tiredness. It’s not about the pitch. St Johnstone have done great. They deserve a huge amount of credit. My concern is for Celtic and for the ambition of the team and the mentality and the progress of the team. These are interesting games for me to analyse.”
Q: Is there a wee concern about the form of some of the players at the moment? Is that also taken away from the mentality? Is it just form in general?
Brendan Rodgers: “I think that is part of it. We have players that are not used to playing so many games and I think you see a bit of tiredness, a bit of fatigue setting in but that’s all part of being a Celtic player. You’ve got to go deep in competitions. You’ve got to have an expectation on you. Very few times you’re going to be the underdog. It’s easy being the underdog but at Celtic there’s expectation there.
“For some after a long season it can be tiring but you have to deal with that. But you’re not tired after 5-10 minutes of a game. So, when you’re out there and it’s happened to the way it has, it’s happened here, it’s happened at theRangers, it’s happened at a few times, there’s no tiredness there. That’s mentality. So that’s something that I need to fix.”
Celtic Manager Brendan Rodgers applauds the Celtic fans at full-time. Final score St Johnstone 1 Celtic 0. St Johnstone v Celtic, Scottish Premiership, McDiarmid Park, Perth, – 06 April 2025 Photo Stuart Wallace IMAGO/Shutterstock
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Brilliant analysis by Rodgers. He said he’d look at himself in the mirror… nothing new there. Hope he leaves in the summer. Once a snake, always a snake.