Brendan Rodgers 2.0 faces final Celtic frontier after 12 months of cajoling his own board – Keith Jackson

This is what it’s been about ever since day one of Brendan Rodgers 2.0.

The thought of leaving a boot print on the Champions League is what has been making him tick from the start. That’s what Celtic’s manager said on the day his second coming was confirmed at a painfully low key unveiling back in Glasgow’s east end. He suspected he wasn’t really wanted back in the old place before he had put pen to paper. So the lack of fuss or fanfare outside Parkhead merely confirmed what he already knew to be true.

Inside, though, Rodgers spoke at some length about the lure which he had found so utterly impossible to resist. And time and again, he came back to the same point. “There needs to be a sense of realism - we’re not going to win the Champions League. But the aim is to be more successful in Europe.” At the time it did feel as if there was no-where else for Rodgers to turn and no more promises left for him to offer. Ange Postecoglou had seen to that by re-establishing Celtic’s complete dominance of the domestic scene.

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European football, then, was the final frontier from the moment Rodgers stepped back in through the front door. And yet, the idea that he might be able to crack it at the second time of asking - having fallen short the first time around before leaving for Leicester City - did make it feel all a little bit like wishful thinking all the same.

Tonight, however, Rodgers will get the chance to prove as good his word having spent much of his first 12 months in the job cajoling his own board into helping him to deliver at this level. Celtic’s approach to the summer transfer window was exactly as Rodgers had demanded of them.

Celtic's Arne Engels
Celtic's Arne Engels -Credit:SNS Group

It brought an end to the scattergun recruitment of unproven talent, high on potential but short on experience and quality. Rodgers had been imploring the men upstairs to be more courageous with their spending policy. Rather than splurge £15m on eight players and hope that two or three of them come good over time, spend it on three or four who almost certainly will.

And, by forcing their hand, Rodgers now has the depth of squad he always knew he would need in order to land blows across the continent while keeping the rivals in check on home soil. Everywhere he looks around Lennoxtown these days, he sees another ‘quality’ addition to his options. During the recent derby day trouncing of Rangers, he sat on the most expensively assembled bench in the history of the Scottish game.

And that means, for the first time in his two stint in charge, he can now control the in game management of his side without risking a huge drop off in the standard of the players on the pitch. In short, not since the days of Martin O’Neill and the run to Seville back in 2003, have Celtic seemed so heavily armed and well equipped at the outset of a European campaign.

And, nor have they been dealt with such a manageable looking hand in terms of the fixture list. UEFA’s new look competition will kick off for Rodgers tonight when he sends his team out to face Slovan Bratislava at home. Granted, it’s unlikely to be a straightforward contest but, nonetheless, the odds are stacked in Celtic’s favour to open up with all three points.

With away trips to Dortmund and Atalanta to follow, and little realistic prospect of victory in Germany or Italy, it’s crucial that Rodgers takes care of business against Bratislava to get his side up and running. If he can achieve that tonight, then back-to-back visits from Leipzig and Brugge in November will feel more like a yawning opportunity than a potentially painful return to a campaign which is already doomed to fail.

Celtic then face Dinamo Zagreb in the Croatian capital and, if momentum is back on their side by then, they may even look to pick up a point on their travels before taking on Young Boys back in Glasgow in the New Year and rounding off the league phase at Aston Villa on January 29.

Somewhere in the region of nine or ten points from these matches should allow Rodgers to hit his target of a place in the play-offs for the last 16. And then he can say with justification that he’s been true to his word from the very start.