BRENDAN Rodgers may have insisted that winning trophies won’t define him as a manager but it certainly won’t do him any harm either.

Rodgers has never lifted a major trophy in his managerial career – his only significant success was winning the Championship play-off final with Swansea City – but could end that drought this afternoon when Celtic take on Aberdeen in the Betfred Cup final at Hampden.

Winning it would not only bring about an immediate endorsement of the revolution he has brought to the club since arriving in the summer but would also provide the platform from which to go on and build the sort of legacy left at Celtic by his countrymen Martin O’Neill and Neil Lennon.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers: Scottish football should consider switch to summer football

Rodgers speaks about unquantifiable qualities like improving players and becoming a better coach but the harsh reality is that there are few awards handed out for technical merit when you are the manager of Celtic. Granted, there is forever talk about playing in a certain style but as an accompaniment to winning trophies, never instead of. The aesthetics of success are always of secondary concern behind success itself.

Just as a striker needs goals so then a manager at any major club require trophies. It is the oxygen that extends life. It is why, for all the evidence of Rodgers’ influence at Celtic is already plain to see, landing the League Cup would present that progress in tangible form. Curiously for all their domestic supremacy, Celtic have only won this competition once in the past seven years, a fact that perhaps adds to the clamour for them to do so again this afternoon.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers: Scottish football should consider switch to summer football

Rodgers’ focus is on incremental improvement and making players and teams better day by day, game by game. But the bigger picture is forever crystallizing. O’Neill is feted for ending Rangers’ dominance, bringing big-name signings from England, and, most importantly, winning Celtic’s first treble since the days of Jock Stein. Lennon’s high watermark was beating Barcelona on the way to taking Celtic to the knock-out stages of the Champions League. Rodgers, you can be certain, is well aware of the footprints he too is now leaving behind.

“Hopefully we can be here for as long as we possibly can and grow and develop,” when asked how people would remember Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic team in five or 10 years’ time. “The biggest thing for me is having a team of substance, one supporters enjoy watching. That’s the ultimate aim as a coach and a manager.

“I'm not worried so much about the periphery stuff, as long as the job I do is respected by the people at the club, the supporters and that the players enjoy their work. If we get a wee bit of luck along the way we can win trophies and make our mark. I’ve always set up teams to attack with aggression and hopefully the level of football can be good enough to bring in trophies.

“I was a huge admirer of Martin. I admired a lot of the guys who came out of Northern Ireland, it is such a small country and how they represented it. They provided great inspiration for younger generations to go and achieve something. Martin was certainly of that ilk.”

Rodgers is in control of his own destiny, something that was undoubtedly key to him accepting the Celtic job following the constraints of the transfer committee he had to work with at Liverpool. He is quick to dismiss the notion that he is some kind of omnipresent autocrat but acknowledged an interest in matters at Celtic that spans beyond the first team.

“I was asked by Dermot [Desmond, the major shareholder] and Peter [Lawwell, chief executive] when I came in here to be the architect of the club,” he added. “And that was very appealing. But you can't do it all on your own. You don't know everything. You know 90 per cent but there's another 10 per cent out there you need specialists to help you with I know that but that allows me to manage that way, to delegate, to get other specialists’ opinions on things.

“I'm an on-field coach. That is my natural environment out there doing coaching. But what I have found in the short time here, the working group is very, very small. It relies on lots of great people. I have inherited really good people at the club. My experiences I hope will be able to help the club develop. Where the club has been before is important but it can never stand still, it has to develop. It has to be improving year on year, on the field, off the field, or else you get left behind.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers: Scottish football should consider switch to summer football

“What I always try to do is create an environment where it is there for people to learn, improve and develop. Whether that's on or off the field, I feel my obligation is to first and foremost help players -whether senior or youth – develop and then roll that out through the club.”

In a week when his predecessor Ronny Deila admitted being Celtic manager had given him sleepless nights and bouts of anxiety, Rodgers revealed he channels his inner Kipling to deal with the pressures. "I never get too carried away when we win and never too disappointed when we lose. The pressure always comes from within to be the best you can be. You want the pressure. I came to Celtic because of the pressure and the intensity. It's always there, if you want to be successful, whether you like it or not, so deal with it. Deal with it, simple as that.”