Brendan Rodgers says that Celtic’s title triumph is all the more satisfying after his hunger and ‘stomach for the fight’ were doubted by some throughout his first season back in Glasgow.
The Celtic manager has seemingly kept the receipts after his critics took aim at him throughout what was, at times, a tumultuous campaign, and as he and his team have emerged victorious as champions, he admits that proving his detractors wrong has made the title win all the sweeter.
Rodgers says that anyone who questioned his desire to bring success to Celtic doesn’t know him, and that he always knew his team would come good in the end when they had their full complement of players available.
“I suppose it’s satisfying, is what you would say,” Rodgers said.
“I feel very satisfied in the work we’ve been able to do.
“It’s surprising a little bit that so many people maybe didn’t see what was happening around the team, that was the biggest surprise for me.
“And especially having been here before, knowing how my teams operate, knowing how they play, knowing how they attack, knowing that was always the intention.
“It’s not full-out attack. I like to think my teams…if you think of a top boxer, a top boxer isn’t throwing punches all the time, he has to put his guard up now and again, and I think my teams are reflective of that.
“They attack, they’re aggressive, they score goals, we try to defend well. And clearly there was a reason to why it maybe wasn’t functioning the same.
“It certainly wasn’t that I’d lost the hunger, or was going through the motions, or hadn’t the stomach for the fight, which is what some people were saying. That’s people who clearly don’t know me.
“So, it’s been very satisfying, but it’s all about creating a habit and the players have been brilliant in creating those habits.
“And eventually, we get our reward.”
