THE Celtic players has just returned to Lennoxtown for pre-season training after their summer breaks, new manager Brendan Rodgers has only taken charge of two sessions and the opening competitive game of the new season is weeks away.
Yet, John Kennedy, the first team coach whose services have been retained, has already detected a definite change to the Ronny Deila regime at this early stage in Rodgers’ tenure.
“He is very precise,” said Kennedy. “Already, his preparation, even for a meeting or a training session, is second to none in terms of the detail. He’s taken things up a notch, to a minute detail.
Read more: Kennedy confident Celtic can avoid more Champions League woe under new boss Rodgers
“The colours of the cones and the poles have to be the same and the pitch has to look a certain way when we go out. For the session plans, there are red and green pens for different teams.
“But the players will say: ‘I like this’. We are a top club and we need to have top standards. That’s the way he works and it’s great for everybody. First impression are good.”
Rodgers, the former Watford, Reading, Swansea City and Liverpool manager, certainly made an instant impression on Kennedy in their first meeting following his appointment as Celtic manager last month.
The ex-Celtic and Scotland centre half confessed he could very easily have followed both Deila and his assistant John Collins out of Parkhead if the Irishman had wanted to bring in an entire back room team.
“When the last manager’s time was up I spoke to the club and they said there were no decisions made,” he said. “They had to get a new manager in and it was a case of taking it from there.
“A manager could have brought his own people in and I could have moved on. But Brendan, a big name in the game, came in and I spoke to him about his views and he then asked me to be part of his coaching team.
“Chris Davies has come in as assistant and it’s an honour to work with the two of them. It’s an opportunity for me to learn and having been here a long time. Hopefully I can add something to them.
“We met for a few hours and had a great chat. He's good company, he's a good people person and he's good to talk to. He's intelligent too. I suppose you could say it was like a job interview, but he's a very calming person. He's down on your level. He's not got an ego or sits there like the boss man.
“It was a very social chat when we met. It wasn’t formal. He just asked for my opinion on players and Scottish football. He also gave me his vision on how he sees things moving forward and how he wants the team to play.
“He's very likeable and everyone has taken to him. You can feel the excitement around the place and everyone is looking forward to getting started in pre-season.
"If your face doesn't fit then it's time to move on. When you step up to first team level job security becomes more of an issue than at youth level. But it's part of the thrill. At the top you're there to be shot at. And at some point that will happen. But I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to stay here and work with a top manager.”
In some respects, Rodgers and Kennedy have much in common. Both men had their careers cut short at a young age by knee injuries and moved into coaching in their twenties. The Scot is optimistic he will benefit from working alongside him.
“We had a good chat about our careers,” he said. “Brendan got injured early and went into coaching. He’s been doing it for 20 years now and has worked for top clubs. For everyone here now, it’s good that he someone of his calibre is coming into share his knowledge and we need to embrace him being here.
“I’d like to manage further down the line, but I haven’t made specific plans for a certain stage. You just have to see how things progress. If I wasn’t wanted hear, I might have to have moved on and maybe taken a job by myself.
“But at this moment in time, I’ve been given a chance to stay and work with a top manager. I will learn from him and that can only stand me in good stead for when I move on. But that’s down the line.”
Kennedy could be a very vocal presence in the dugout under Deila – the Norwegian to whom he remains close and is indebted to for giving him the chance to work at first team level – and he stressed he intends to continue to voice his opinion on team matters under Rodgers.
"That's just the way I am,” he said. “If I was a manager I'd want the opinions of my coaching staff. As an assistant, you want to give him information so he can make his decisions. It's part of my job to give my opinion and he's very open to that."
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