GORDON STRACHAN is adamant Brendan Rodgers could handle the pressure of succeeding Arsene Wenger at Arsenal – after thriving amid the suffocating scrutiny of life as Celtic boss.
Rodgers, who is chasing an unprecedented double Treble as his trophy-laden tenure as Hoops manager continues, has been listed among the front-runners for the Gunners vacancy after it was confirmed Wenger would leave the club this summer following 22 years at the helm.
Celtic’s majority shareholder Dermot Desmond has made it clear he would not stand in the 45-year-old’s way, should he be approached for the role.
Read more: Celtic are so far ahead they can complete Treble for next three years - Stiliyan Petrov
And Strachan (below), who won six major honours with the Parkhead club between 2005 and 2009, believes Rodgers’ success in Glasgow would be the perfect grounding – both on and off the pitch.
“Yes, there is a gap [in the level between Arsenal and Celtic] but there’s absolutely no gap in terms of the stress you get,” said Strachan.
“When you’re at Celtic, if you can deal with the stress and the media up there, you can deal with it anywhere.
“It’s a great grounding experience to go anywhere in the world, maybe apart from Barcelona or Real Madrid where it’s really vicious. If you can deal with it at Celtic, you can deal with anything that comes along.
“A bonus you get as Celtic manager is you play in the Champions League and you have to deal with the top, top teams. So there’s preparation and experience there.”
Strachan reckons Rodgers’ three-year stint at Liverpool, which saw him come agonisingly close to winning the Premier League title during a barn-storming 2013/14 campaign, should not be underestimated when the Arsenal power-brokers consider their next move.
Luis Enrique, Mikel Arteta, Leonardo Jardim and Massimiliano Allegri are among the other luminaries being linked with the post.
“Brendan has done it at Liverpool,” Strachan told talkSPORT. “Some of the managers who are being talked about [for the Arsenal job] have never been anywhere near winning the Premier League like Brendan was at Liverpool.”
Strachan added: “Celtic understood when they took Brendan on that if he did a great job, which he has done there, he would get the call somewhere else.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here