DAVIE Provan, the former Celtic winger turned Sky Sports pundit, last night warned the Parkhead club could struggle to hold on to their manager Brendan Rodgers if he wins the domestic treble this season.
Provan works extensively in the Barclays Premier League in England and believes that how Rodgers has fared during his first season in Scotland will have impressed club owners down south.
Under the Northern Irishman, Celtic have qualified for the group stages of the Champions League for the first time in three years, won the Betfred Cup and built up a 27 point lead at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership.
The Scottish champions released their financial results for the last six months of 2016 on Monday which showed they had made profits of almost £19 million as a result of their success.
Provan predicted that Rodgers, who led Swansea City into the Premier League for the first time and came close to winning the English title during his time in charge of Liverpool, will soon be a target for a top six club.
“The problem for Celtic in the longer term could be trying to keep him here,” he said. “There’s no doubt he’ll want another go at the Premier League in England.
“The trick for Celtic is finding the means of keeping him here and keeping him motivated which might be the more difficult of the two.
“I’d love to think they could keep him for four years, but there’s has to be doubt about that. I’m not sure he’ll see 10-in-a-row as the big picture.
“He’ll see restoring Celtic’s credibility in Europe as the number one priority. He’ll want to make Celtic regular Champions League participants.
“Under Brendan, if he’s given the backing from the board, and it would seem at the moment that they are buying into him, I don’t see why Celtic can’t be regulars.”
He added: “But managers down there are given no time at all and there’s a huge turnover in jobs. I would think Brendan would be on the short-list of most clubs down there.
“I don’t think he would take a lower Premier League job. It would take something special to attract him. That would be the worry for Celtic.
“The two performances and results against Manchester City didn’t go unnoticed down south. Those are the ones people in England would have been looking for.
“If he wins the treble this year, and he’s already qualified for the Champions League, where does he go after that? The concern would be that he does it all and does it really early and then he looks around and wonders what he should be doing.
“He’s still young enough to take his time and I hope he stays in Scotland for the foreseeable future. But the way he’s going, the way he’s improving the team, he will get offers. That’s inevitable. Peter Lawwell will know that.
“He’ll want another go at England because he clearly wouldn’t have been happy with how it ended at Liverpool.”
Provan suspects Rodgers, who was sacked by Liverpool last season after the Anfield club made a poor start to the season, may grow frustrated if his best players are offloaded and feel he is unable to realise his ambitions in Glasgow.
“It would be difficult if Celtic got a daft offer for (Moussa) Dembele and the player wanted to go,” he said. “In those circumstances, you can’t keep him. If they were to get a daft offer for him or a daft offer for Kieran Tierney then very often it is up to the player.
“That would be the difficulty that Brendan would have - trying to build a team and keep his best players because some players would see Scottish football as the bridge towards the Premier League.
“Players can earn four or five times their salary down south and it is very tempting. It can be difficult for Brendan to keep the team together.”
Davie Provan was speaking at a William Hill media event. William Hill is the proud sponsor of the Scottish Cup.
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