Before the fine dining comes the bread and butter. The Champions League is back on the menu and all those associated with Celtic are preparing to pull up a chair, tuck a napkin into their collar and gorge themselves on the kind of lavish footballing fare that would make the grandiose, gluttonous banquets of Nero look like pie and beans in The Drookit Dug on Lennoxtown High Street.
By the time Barcelona, Manchester City and Borussia Monchengladbach have been dished up and chewed over in the group stages, and Zadok the Priest has been tossed about like hand torn basil, the Parkhead faithful will probably be shovelling fistfuls of antacids down their thrapple to try to counter the excess.
It promises to be quite a feast but Brendan Rodgers, the Celtic manager, is certainly not going to let his eyes be distracted by the Champions League indulgences that are about to be spread out on the table.
Domestic affairs take precedence this weekend with Aberdeen arriving at Parkhead for the first meeting of the season between the top two teams in last year’s Scottish Premiership.
By all accounts, Tuesday night’s fraught tussle with Hapoel Be’er Sheva in the second leg of the Champions League play-off was as draining as a Dyno-Rod convention but, in this game, there can be no let up. “There is no time to rest,” insisted Rodgers whose heartbeat has probably just returned to something resembling stable after a quite torturous night in Israel which saw Celtic hold on grimly for a 5-4 aggregate win.
Defeated but ultimately triumphant on the European stage, Rodgers is keen to make sure it doesn’t all go flat on the home front. “They players put a lot into the game but I will always pick a team that I think can win the game,” said Rodgers when asked if the energy-sapping encounter during the week would lead to him chopping and changing his line-up.
This time last year, Aberdeen were in the merry midst of a rousing rampage at the start of the season as they won their first eight league games to set a robust early pace in the race for the Scottish title. They would run out of puff in the marathon, of course, and eventually wheezed in 15 points behind Ronny Deila’s Celtic.
For most observers, it was the best chance Aberdeen had of winning the title since granite was first winkled out of Rubislaw Quarry. Or so it felt like. Celtic were hardly dazzling or dominant as Deila’s time at the helm began to unravel but the Dons could not capitalise and were found wanting when must-win matches came along. As far as mounting some form of challenge, though, Aberdeen have been the best of the rest over the last couple of campaigns and Rodgers harbours a sincere admiration for the work Derek McInnes has done with the Pittodrie club.
“Derek is an excellent coach,” said Rodgers. “It was tough for him at Bristol City and I spoke to him a couple of times when he was down there. The club was struggling at the time but he will have learned from that. He came back up north and I spoke to him a couple of times again. I watched from afar and I thought he was doing an excellent job. His teams are tough to beat and Aberdeen are, historically, a great club up here and I have a lot of respect for them. They have a lot of young players, some of whom I know. I had Jonny Hayes at Reading when he was just 16 and he is a player I also considered taking to Swansea.”
In the four league meetings between the sides last season, Celtic and Aberdeen shared the honours with two victories each. “They will come and want to impose their game on us,” noted Rodgers, as he anticipated another keenly fought tussle.
When Rodgers and McInnes shake hands prior to trotting off into their respective technical areas, there will be a mutual respect before they get down to business. The pair are used to doing business, after all.
Rodgers was in charge of Liverpool at the time of Danny Ward’s loan move from Anfield to Aberdeen. The 23-year-old Welsh keeper was a key cog in the Dons machine during their assault on the title over the first few months of last season but he was recalled to Merseyside at the turn of the year by Jurgen Klopp, the German who succeeded Rodgers at Liverpool.
“In my conversations with him I always felt Derek was a guy who wanted to do it (the loan deal) well,” added Rodgers. “He is very professional and he picks young players and give them an opportunity. We felt it was a great chance for Wardy to come and play in a proper league and get some experience at a good club. I had no hesitation when Derek asked.”
Following the international break next weekend, Celtic have the small matter of a meeting with Rangers before a Champions League showdown with Barcelona.
“It’s not Loch Lomond, is it?,” said Rodgers of the quiet life on the golf course. “But this the life we are in and these are the challenges that we want. Between now and Christmas there are all these games and all at a great level.”
It should be quite a nosh-up.
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