BRENDAN Rodgers last night revealed for the first time how he had been earmarked as a potential Celtic manager of the future several years ago – by his late mentor Tommy Burns.
Rodgers was given his first break in coaching by Burns at Reading in the 1990s after his playing career there was ended at a young age by a knee condition and the pair went on to become close friends.
The Irishman asked the Scot to join him when he was on the brink of securing his first job in management at Leicester City back in 2007 – a position which he ultimately didn’t land.
Read more: Brendan Rodgers - I've not taken a step down by joining Celtic
However, he was very keen for the legendary Celtic player and former Parkhead manager to become the Director of Football at Filbert Street if he had taken over there.
The 43-year-old, who was last night paraded in front of 10,000 Celtic supporters in the East End of Glasgow, has told how Burns had envisaged him being in charge at Parkhead even back then.
“The last time I saw Tommy, bless him I came up here,” said Rodgers. “I was working with the reserves with Chelsea and was talking with Leicester City about maybe getting my first job in management.
“I thought I needed somebody experienced to come in beside me. At the time, Milan Mandaric was the Leicester chairman and he was talking about a Director of Football.
“So I said: ‘Listen, if I am going to come in to Leicester I would love to bring a guy in with me, Tommy Burns’. My idea was to get Tommy in to Leicester as a Director of Football, because he wasn’t really wanting to manage any more, he was here working within the youth department at the time.
“I came up to see him and we talked about how, if I got the job at Leicester and he came in as Director of Football, one day he could come back to Celtic as a Director of Football and I could come back as a manager. That is how ironic this is.
“I came up, met him in the hotel, we had a great chat, I came to the Celtic game and we went back to his house to see his wife Rosemary afterwards. It was something he was keen to do from a football perspective.
“I think his family and Rosemary had been down in England for a few years and wanted to be up here. But it was certainly something that made him think.
“But the only thing that was making him want to do it was the possibility of him coming back to Celtic one day as the Director of Football with me as a manager. This is a poignant day really.”
Rodgers’s rise to the top in football management has been meteoric since his raw talent was first recognised; he has done well in his spells in charge at Watford, Swansea and, initially at least, Liverpool and is highly regarded in England.
The man from County Antrim believes he had the best role model possible in Burns as he was starting out and learned lessons from him then which have stood him in good stead in career in the dugout ever since.
“When I first started it was on a part-time basis at Reading,” he said. “When I stopped playing I was working in the academy there. Obviously, I looked up to Tommy because I was a Celtic supporter and he had been a player here.
Read more: Brendan Rodgers - I am at Celtic for the long haul
“When he came in to Reading he sort of took me under his wing a bit. We were able to talk about football and very quickly I saw his passion for it. I knew he was a fantastic player and had known him from managing Celtic.
“What I saw at that early stage of my coaching career was two things. One, was the detail that he put into his coaching. He loved working with players, loved improving players, loved making them better.
“But also his human qualities impressed me. He was a wonderful man. I used to watch him and see him about the place and even when he was under pressure there he never changed. He was a good man. He always had time for you and I never ever forgot that.
“As a young coach I was looking for many influences and many inspirations. Tommy was a huge influence. He was there with Packie Bonner. Both of them were extremely helpful to me in the early stages of my coaching.
Being handed the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of a man who has been so influential in his life at a club he has supported since he was a young boy growing up in Northern Ireland, then, will not be taken lightly by Rodgers.
“Just walking around here, I have noticed the pictures of him on the wall,” he said. “He will always be here. For me, to follow in the footsteps of Jock Stein and Billy McNeill and Davie Hay and Tommy and these guys in an incredible feeling of privilege for me.
“I think he would be very proud. He was a Celtic man, he always just wanted what was best for Celtic - whether he was supporting, playing for or ultimately managing the club.
“He never lost that love for the club, even when he’d left to coach at other places like Newcastle and Reading. His passion and emotion for Celtic was always there.”
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