Celtic's Champions League masterplan laid bare as Chelsea and Man City drafted in for ultimate preparation

The Scottish champions have high hopes for the European campaign

Brendan Rodgers has learned plenty from a decade of Champions League.

In his eyes, the biggest trait needed to really compete is belief. Rodgers has seen it across Europe and it’s what Celtic will need to give him what he wants. Which is for them not just to be participants in it, but consistent competitors. Rodgers’ career at the top table began 10 years ago with Liverpool and a group-stage win over Ludogorets. Since then, experiences have been gathered, not all positive.

With just a couple more victories on the record at Celtic since then, it has been difficult at times. But Rodgers wants Celtic to really show themselves this time and, if it is to happen, they’ll need that inner-feeling of belonging. He said: “For us as a football club, we want to make that progress from participating to being competitive. We don’t want just the benchmark to be domestic. We want to improve and do well in Europe. I love the challenge, I realise the challenge. The players do, we love playing at it. It’s an amazing level to be involved in.

“It’s not getting any easier, that’s for sure. Listen, it’s an elite competition. Most of my Champions League history has been with Celtic.

“From a managing perspective, I’ve clearly developed a lot since that [first time], you know, 39, 40 years of age and 51 now and had a lot more games under my belt, much more experience and played against a lot of the big teams and big competitions around the world. You see how top players have that belief. I think that’s what I’ve always said.

“Champions League really is belief games. These are the games where, I’ve been fortunate enough in my career to have worked with world-class players and really top-level players in the European game.

“One of the biggest attributes is that belief mechanism they have. They believe they should be there. This is what we’re trying to develop here. Players that can consistently believe that not just participation is enough, but to go and compete and you can absolutely do that. But in order to want more, you have to give more. That’s what we aim to do.

“For teams like ourselves, we have to be at our absolute maximum to benefit, especially how the game has grown and developed on the financial side over the last number of years. But what I always believe in here as a club is that if we can get our squad to a really competitive level, what we can do here at home can make it a really special place to be and still we can be really competitive at this level. And that’s what I’ve always wanted us to be.

“A lot of occasions where, and no fault of the players, because the players here and all my times here, look to the first period, gave me absolutely everything. But the level, we just went at that level. That’s the reality of it. The players were good players, but maybe our depth wasn’t quite there. But look at us now as a club, progressing, looking to look forward.

“There’s always learning. It doesn’t matter if it’s Bratislava or Borussia Dortmund or St Johnstone. I will always learn. It’s a great opportunity for us to test our qualities against some of the best teams and that’s always the big challenge from a coaching and managing perspective.”

Rodgers felt more lessons were learned from last year’s efforts, which saw the team collect four points from home games against Lazio, Atletico Madrid and Feyenoord. He explained: “If you look at the nuts and bolts of it, people will say you only got four points and then they’ll cry about that and then the season before and the season before.

“I think there was a lot of learning in it. We used the [pre-season] games against Man City and Chelsea as Champions League preparation games and how we set the team up and how we tried to play and work.”

Rodgers knows many will judge him and his team on the performances in Europe, but added: “You judge me however you want to judge me. I’ve managed big games before and believe it or not I’ve actually won big games.

“You’re getting judged every day. Every time you train, every time you play at Celtic. it’s a real test of your character and mentality. So this is a competition clearly we want to do well in and we want to grow in. You’ve seen the early season form without really the players that we’ve brought in. The rhythm and quality of the team has been really, really good.

“But I always want more and I want to bring that there into a European stage and for that you need that calibre of player. So the club have backed me great with that. As I sit here, we’re in a really good place.”

Big transfer outlay may appear to add to pressure and expectancy, but Rodgers countered: “Not one bit, no. I don’t set the fees, the player doesn’t set the fee. We’ve spent money, but we’ve brought a lot of money in. We’ve brought more in. So there’s no pressure.

“We all want to invest in the team. The board do, I do, the players want the challenge of competition in the squad.

“I think that by competing and participating at this level and doing well at this level as well as domestically always improves that opportunity to improve the squad.

“The only pressure is the football pressure. The football pressure for us to want to do well and perform well. The points total, the destination where we want to get to, certainly the first portal call would be that.”

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