News that some local councils were planning to double their tax bill on second properties last month was probably a rare occasion when Brendan Rodgers has felt any real domestic pressure this season, such is the Northern Irishman’s success rate at Hampden Park.
During his two stints in charge of Celtic, after all, he has made the national stadium a home from home. After completing back-to-back trebles after arriving at Parkhead in 2016, the former Liverpool manager teed up a third, before departing to Leicester City midway through the campaign, which was closed out by successor Neil Lennon in 2019.
Indeed, the sense of loss at letting a third full treble in a row slip on his return to Glasgow last season, after falling at the first hurdle in the League Cup against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park, seems to have been fueling the home fires as he quickly prised that trophy back from rivals Rangers in December before steamrolling the Govan outfit and their erstwhile manager Philippe Clement to the brink in the Premiership.
With that particular piece of silverware back in its increasingly familiar surroundings in the Celtic Park trophy room, the missing piece in the puzzle this term for Rodgers is the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup.
Full-back Anthony Ralston, who scored last week for the Scottish champions as they savaged Kilmarnock 5-1 at Celtic Park to virtually guarantee four-in-a-row, is backing his manager to do what no Parkhead incumbent has done before as his team take on Premiership bottom markers St Johnstone this afternoon at Hampden in the semi-final.
And, naturally, the Scotland internationalist is optimistic Rodgers will continue to call Celtic home and break new records in the coming years.
“It would be a terrific achievement,” Ralston said of securing three trebles for Celtic. “We have done so well under him in the Scottish Cup and at Hampden especially, it does give you belief.
“It has been really successful since the gaffer came back in, so as players when you get your opportunity you want to implement the game style he is coaching because it has been working great for us.
“We are just looking for more of the same moving forward into next season and, as you say, continuing into next.
“[A new deal for Rodgers] is in the hands of others at the club, I am only a player, but yes definitely I would like to see that.”
There has been some justified criticism of the levels of competition in the Scottish game at present as Celtic have turned what for many was a two-horse race with Rangers into more of a solo showjumping event in recent years, with Rodgers at the heart of much of the unprecedented success the Glasgow giants have been enjoying over the past decade.
But, for Ralston at least, Celtic don’t have to look too far to find inspiration to continue to chase even greater heights still.
After a successful Champions League campaign which saw the Scottish champions reach the knockout round for the first time since 2012, where they exited at the hands of Bundesliga behemoths Bayern Munich after pushing Vincent Kompany’s side all the way over two legs in their play-off encounter in Munich, Ralston & co. have had to watch on from their television sets this week as clubs down south took part in epic battles on the continent. Arsenal downed holders Real Madrid 5-1 over two legs to reach the last four, while Aston Villa, who Celtic faced during the group stage, were narrowly dumped out by Luis Enrique’s Paris Saint-Germain 5-4 on aggregate.
Such blockbuster action naturally leads to a sense of green-eyed envy for anyone of a Celtic persuasion, but the prospect of another shot at Europe’s elite next season is keeping everyone inside the Parkhead dressing room on their toes, according to Ralston.
“We have obviously come up against some of these teams, we held our own in Europe so that gives you the confidence rather than watching anyone else,” the right-back said.
“Just seeing what we did is enough to give us the confidence to go into next season and really have a push in Europe again. We have an amazing quality mixed in with the attitude so there is no reason why we can’t.”
