European ambitions can keep Brendan Rodgers at Celtic

Q: Looking how far your team has come, what the potential is, are those the kind of nights that can persuade you to stay a bit longer than the 18 months left in your contract?

Brendan Rodgers: “To be fair we’ve not really had any conversation around that. I think that what we’ll always look at is what’s the very best thing for Celtic. Above any individual will always be what’s right for Celtic. But certainly when I came back, domestically my record was okay and I knew to become better in Europe I needed a stronger squad. The club have been fantastic that way in terms of providing that.

“We’ve shown what we can do and all within the finances of the club. Hopefully going forward we can continue to push that way so we can keep becoming a seasonal team at that level and challenging. In terms of the length of me staying I’m obviously very happy here. But it will always be what’s best for Celtic. But in this moment in time the real focus is finishing the season as strong as we can.”

Q: If we look at a performance from the outside before the campaign there’s a vast ceiling on what a team like Celtic can achieve in the Champions League because of the financial budget. Do you think you’ve shown that maybe isn’t the case and you can push it a little bit further and go a little bit further in the competition?

Brendan Rodgers: “I think there are financial levels that we can never get to. I think that’s clear. People have gone to the next level. That’s always going to be a challenge for a club like ourselves without the finances of the really elite clubs. But we can certainly get to the next stage. The next stage being what we’ve shown this season with the level of game that we can play and the confidence that you gain. Because that’s the big thing at this level having the confidence to go to the Allianz Arena and play that way.

“So that will give the players a huge lift of confidence. And there’s no reason then why if you can qualify out of these group stages and we can perform like we did then there’s no reason why you can’t move on to the last 16 or quarter final. But that’s all obviously part of the plan going forward hopefully.”

Q: “You obviously have a qualifier next year, it’s not straight into the group stages. I just wonder how much the wheels are already in motion in terms of the planning for next summer to allow signings to come in early and make sure that you’re ready for that playoff time?

Brendan Rodgers: “Listen I don’t want to start talking about qualifiers for the Champions League when I’m not a champion yet. So we’ve got a lot of work to do in the league. We’ve got the games that we have left so we have to finish the season strong. But Champions League, Europa League, whatever, the plans are well underway and a lot of work going on to improve our squad.

Q: In terms of how you respond to the way the game ended, the cruel nature of it, what’s the psychology of picking the players up from a result like that? Or is it you can look back to the pride of the performance you put in, is it a difficult one?

Brendan Rodgers: “Not really. I said to the players after the game, you can hold your head up so proud because you think of the level of the opponent and the team and what you look for in this game is respect. You’ll come off the pitch and them guys will respect you for what you did over the couple of games and these guys will be challenging for maybe the Champions League itself. So for that, again the disappointment was there naturally because of the nature of how the game ended.

“But no, I said to the players for us to be sat here feeling like this, it really shows how far you’ve come really because I looked in their eyes after the Dortmund game and that was a real tough one. So it just showed you the mentality and the resilience and the grit that this team have. They overcame that, recovered from the setback and then pushed on and we went back to the hotel, we had a beer and then got back to training the next day.”

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