BRENDAN Rodgers has stated that he believes Celtic are in the “best place” they have been entering a Champions League campaign during his time at Parkhead – and admitted he wants the Scottish champions to compete not just participate in Europe’s elite club competition this season.
The Glasgow club will take on Slovakian opponents Slovan Bratislava in their opening league phase match at home tomorrow night and are, having won all six of the domestic fixtures they have played in the 2024/25 campaign and conceded just one goal, widely expected to triumph.
Rodgers brought in Kasper Schmeichel, Paulo Bernardo, Adam Idah, Alex Valle, Auston Trusty, Arne Engels and Luke McCowan at a cost of over £30m during the transfer summer window and is confident he has both the quality and strength in depth he needs to challenge for a place in the play-offs.
Parkhead chairman Peter Lawwell stressed that he was keen for Celtic to be more than “a regular European football participant” in their annual financial report, which revealed the Premiership leaders have £77m in the bank, yesterday and stressed they must “progress as far as possible and improve our recent record”.
Rodgers, whose men will take on Bratislava, RB Leipzig, Club Brugge and Young Boys at home and Borussia Dortmund, Atalanta, Dinamo Zagreb and Aston Villa away in the coming months, feels he is well placed to deliver the success on the continent which directors and supporters crave.
“There's absolutely no doubt,” he said. “This feels like the most ready I've been as a Celtic manager coming into a Champions League campaign.
“Last season coming in, trying to find out about players, managing them through that and seeing them in the competition, was tough. But having had a year under my belt back here and being able to improve a lot of the areas has helped. Readiness is a great word. This will be the best place that I've been in arriving at that first game since I've been here.”
Rodgers continued: “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 is make it a really special place to be and be really competitive at this level. That's what I've always wanted us to be.
“There have been a lot of occasions where, and no fault of the players, we just weren’t 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 go forward. “The club has supported us fantastic in the summer and we want to be able to do that again in some other areas because we want to keep growing. We don't want just the benchmark to be domestic. We want to improve and do well in Europe. So it's an amazing level to be involved in.
“The level of performance has been consistent and aggressive and everything that I'd want. But I always want more and I want to bring that into a European stage and for that you need that calibre of player. So the club have backed me great with that and going forward we want to add a few more as well. That will help evolve that as well. “Currently as I sit here we're in a really good place. I come into the stadium, I look around, it's really exciting. The work that's going on behind the scenes here is making this an amazing place to come and work in and play football in and support. So, yeah, on and off the pitch we're in a really good place.”
