The 11 Celtic changes Brendan Rodgers could make from Champions League record breakers and STILL field £30m XI

Celtic new signings
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


Callum McGregor might consider letting Liam Scales deliver the pre-match Huddle Homily for this Sunday.

Scales, the unsung hero who won fans’ acclaim with his display in Europe in midweek, once knew the ignominy of being on the wrong side of the worst defeat in the 150-year history of the Scottish Cup. The Irishman was part of the Aberdeen team that lost to Darvel in Ayrshire 18 months ago.

After the bravado shown against Bratislava, you might think there’d be little fascination as Celtic face Falkirk. From the Champions League to the Premier Sports Cup? From high altitude to low interest? From disco lights to broad daylight? But Brendan Rodgers can’t tolerate that attitude. Not after verbalising last weekend that there are no lines of demarcation between European and domestic competition and highlighting the responsibility owed by the team to the supporters.

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Celtic fans have long wanted the club to be taken to the next level. When the BBC showed Celtic’s systematic dismantling of Slovan Bratislava to the nation ahead of Manchester City’s game with Inter Milan, on the basis it was a better watch, the club knew it had arrived at its destination.

Rodgers knows, though, that doesn’t allow his players to believe there are other competitions too parochial to be of any concern to them. “We can never, ever forget ... the bread and butter,” he said after the league defeat of Hearts. “It’s so important. It’s the lives of so many supporters, especially in Glasgow. We can never discount that.”

The next level means you are charged with the responsibility of being successful at home and abroad. Falkirk stand between Celtic and the potential winning of the first trophy that goes towards a domestic Treble. When Celtic chairman Peter Lawwell announced the club’s latest set of financial figures, from a different stratosphere to any other club in the country, he included a mission statement. “We must strive for progression as a club as the industry evolves at a remarkable pace,” he said.

Lawwell also knows that doesn’t mean lavish cash reserves, and reputational refurbishment in Europe, diminish other competitions to the level of a two-bob irrelevance.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers -Credit:PA

Rodgers could make 11 changes to his starting line-up from the side who created Champions League history by recording their biggest win in the competition. And he’d still field a side containing seven-figure signings and capped players from a variety of countries.

How about Sinisalo; Ralston, Nawrocki, Trusty, Valle; Bernardo, Holm, Turley; Forrest, Idah, Palma?

If that team couldn’t beat a Championship side at home then strength in depth wouldn’t be all it’s made out to be. But I suspect Rodgers will be more cautious in his approach out of respect for his counterpart John McGlynn and the integrity of the competition.

He must also respect his own words about how his team’s performances affect the lives of the people who support them. If the team are about sensitivity then so are the fans. Too intense to stand for humiliation in the form of elimination.