SHOULD Celtic lift the BetFred Cup tomorrow it would be the club's 100th major honour and Brendan Rodgers' first. This is a diverting detail to throw into the mix ahead of the first chance to win silverware in the Scottish season, even if such an analysis ignores the small matter of Swansea City's 4-2 victory against Reading in the £100m playoff final at Wembley back in May 2011. It could also be the first leg of a memorable treble, as the Northern Irishman attempts to become only the third Celtic manager to achieve the feat.
Many is the Old Firm player and manager who has come to Glasgow speaking dreamily about the chance to win things, but Rodgers insists that the meeting with Aberdeen at Hampden isn't about him and he certainly won't define his success and failure as a manager by the length of the list of the Honours section on his Wikipedia page. His detractors would perhaps point out that he would say that, having just fallen short of claiming what would have been a memorable Barclays Premier League win with Liverpool.
“I’ve been asked if it’s about me winning my first trophy," said Rodgers. "It’s really isn’t. When I look beyond my career, what will define me as a coach personally will be about improving players. When I’m hobbling about with a walking stick I’d hope to look back and players will know I’ve done my best for them.
"My ambition is always for the club to win trophies as a result of me being here," he added. "I’ve always felt that the consequence of the work will hopefully lead to that, but you won’t see me jumping about, sliding on my knees, running about because we’ve won a trophy. I’m not taking anything away from it, but what it means to me personally is zero.”
Rodgers points to a rather random sample of managers, from veteran Argentinian coach Marcelo Bielsa to Partick manager Alan Archibald, to emphasise that success is never just a matter of silverware, more a matter of generating improvement from the resources at your disposal.
"Managers get judged on what they have won, but it’s no drama to me," he said. "People can write and speak about it, but for me it means nothing. If I was to get the job at Barcelona and stay there for three years we’d win things but does that make me a good or bad coach? It says I’ve got great players.
“There’s load of coaches that never get the opportunity," he added. "I’m a massive admirer of Marcelo Bielsa. This is a guy who hasn’t had the fortune to be as decorated as some but he’s a brilliant coach. He’s a wonderful manager and a great innovator.
"I haven’t played Partick Thistle yet and I don’t know the coach but I’ve looked at their games and at some of how the manager sets them up and how he likes them to play. I haven’t met him and don’t know him, but he looks a very good coach. He shouldn’t be judged on whether he’s won trophies or not. He should be judged on his work."
Rodgers hadn't even visited Hampden before the semi-final win against Rangers and accepts that the closest he has ever come to the cup final experience was that Wembley match in 2011, where victory arrived courtesy of a hat-trick by Scott Sinclair. But even that was less nerve wracking for the manager than Celtic's Champions League play-off against Hapoel Be'er Sheva during the summer. In truth, both of those nerve-shredding playoff occasions had far more of an all-or-nothing quality to them than tomorrow's final.
"In terms of actual pure finals then, yes, that [the 2011 play-off final] would be my first domestic cup final, I suppose," said Rodgers. "That game will always go down as the life-changing game of my career, really. The pressure and intensity. You are changing people’s lives in that game because of the magnitude of it.
"But I was more stressed in Be’er Sheva if I’m being honest," added the Celtic manager. "I don’t think I will ever be that stressed again ... although it just gets recycled every year doesn’t it? Maybe after four or five years here I’ll be sitting back thinking it’s not as stressful. Hopefully that is the case as I’ll have worked here a bit longer and be more tuned to what goes on."
Celtic have been the best team in Scotland by a distance this season, but Rodgers is well aware that they have a target on their backs. "We will lose games, there is no question about that," said Rodgers. "It will happen at some point. Whenever you go on a run like we’ve been on, it is natural people want to see you beaten. That’s the nature of the country, Britain and the world, isn’t it? But you fight for your life."
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