BRENDAN Rodgers last night revealed he will approach the final Glasgow derby match of the season as if his job as Celtic manager depended on it - even though the result is virtually meaningless for him and his side.
The Parkhead club will have nothing other than pride to play for when they take on Rangers at Ibrox this afternoon having clinched the Ladbrokes Premiership title for the sixth game running at the start of April.
They will also be looking to extend their impressive 41 game unbeaten domestic run – but Rodgers has stressed that is not a priority for him and admitted he will rest key players in the final four league games of the season ahead of the Scottish Cup final with Aberdeen next month.
However, the Irishman, whose side has won four and drawn one of their five encounters with their city rivals so far in the 2016/17 campaign, will still be desperate to come out on top against Pedro Caixinha’s team.
“I would like to think the players will tell you that,” he said. “I approach every game as if it it might be my last game. I have to fight to prove that I am good enough to be here. That means from the first waking moment we focus on our job, I make the players better, develop them and help the team develop.
“There are no lazy days, we’ve never had a lazy day in training, Can’t afford it in the games. And like I’ve said, our season will not finish, and the demands will not finish, until the last whistle goes against Aberdeen.”
Asked if he had always had that winning mentality, the former Liverpool manager quipped: “It evolves when you get the sack! No, not really, it is your professionalism. You just never know in football. What you have to do is do your best. Good practice, standards high and when you are the leader you have to demonstrate that.
“I’m demanding, as the players will probably tell you, I am a wee bit demanding, but then you have to show that you’re at your physical best and you are doing everything you can to help them.”
Rodgers, who had spent his entire coaching career in England before moving to Scotland last summer, admitted that playing the same team six times in the course of a single season was unusual for him.
However, he reiterated that his desire to triumph would be exactly the same as it was in the meeting with Mark Warburton’s side at Parkhead back in September.
“I don’t think it is ideal,” he said. “But it is the nature of it. You are going to play each four times in the league and then we have two semi-finals, but it doesn’t take anything off them. I will turn up at Ibrox at the weekend and there is going to be a real buzz to play the games and we will look forward to it.
“It is a great pitch and the supporters behind the goal will be happy and we want to perform for them. You have an obligation to fight, to run, to do your best. We are in a real good moment physically in the team and our confidence is there. It is all working towards improvement.”
Meanwhile, Rodgers, who has dismissed reports which suggest he is monitoring Utrecht right back Giovanni Troupee, has admitted he would like have his new signings on board when the Celtic squad return to Lennoxtown for pre-season training on June 19. He does not, though, envisage many new faces arriving during the close season.
“Ideally, you’d have them in by then,” he said. “There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes. We want quality though, not quantity.
“We have a lot of boys tied up on deals who are continually improving so it will be about quality rather than numbers. It’ll probably be no more than two, in terms of what we need. It won’t be nine or 10.”
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