I imagine Brendan Rodgers has found if difficult to keep focus on football this weekend despite remarkable Celtic trait

Daily Record

3 days ago

I'd imagine Brendan Rodgers has found it difficult to focus on football this weekend.
How could Celtic 's manager not be distracted by real life and the tragic goings on around him?
On Thursday evening, the coffin carrying Lisbon Lion John Clark, a friend and former colleague, was taken to the church closest to Celtic Park for the service that would precede 'Luggy's' burial the following day.
But, before then, the awful story of Liverpool's Diogo Jota, and his brother, being killed in a car crash in Spain, leaving behind a wife and three young children, dominated the news agenda.
Rodgers – a husband, father, grandfather and former Liverpool manager – must have been consumed by a sense of devastating loss.
Football is always described as being the most important of the things that are least important.
Brendan will have been given, in a period of 48 hours, an even more intimate understanding of what that actually means.
Friday night's pre-season friendly for Celtic against Queen's Park at Lesser Hampden will doubtless have been a difficult occasion for him to negotiate.
The days ahead, with more games to come in his native Ireland and abroad, will need to be dealt with almost as part of a healing process.
That's why it seems almost like an intrusion into someone's privacy to ask questions of Brendan's professional life as the start to the new season approaches.
But that is unlikely to be a commonly held inclination, particularly in the wake of the stunning piece of business that was Nicolas Kuhn's transfer to Italian side Como.
Celtic's capacity for turning modest purchases into gargantuan sales is remarkable.
But, at the same time, this one demands the financial rewards be devoted to acquiring a reliable central-defensive partner for Cameron Carter Vickers without passing off the usual suspects in the squad as adequate accomplices.
And you can add a high-calibre striker plus another wide player to the list of essential requirements.
Anything less than that betrays the manager in the midst of a transfer window in which no money has been spent as yet by Celtic.
Benjamin Nygren's arrival was paid for by the kick-back from Jeremie Frimpong's move from Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool earlier this summer.
But Rodgers is revered by people in the game because of his capacity for dealing with human relationships, as was evidenced by his summary of Celtic's transfer business, incoming and outgoing, in an interview last Wednesday.
Particularly striking was his insight regarding the return of Kieran Tierney to the club after his years at Arsenal.
He said: 'I was with him during the summer so know at first hand how excited Kieran is to be here.'
Tierney is an icon in the eyes of the Celtic support.
Rodgers had clearly gone out of his way to look the defender in the eye and establish the depth of his commitment surrounding what will always be put into written and verbal short-hand as an 'emotional return' to the club he has supported from boyhood.
Celtic are getting Tierney at the age of 27, a mature individual compared to the youngster who had his teeth rearranged by Aberdeen's Jayden Stockley during the 2017 Scottish Cup Final.
But who raced from Hampden, underwent dental treatment and was back for the presentation of the trophy he dramatised by grabbing cup and club badge on his shirt at the same time.
Tierney's body might have suffered the ravages of time in the game since then but his spirit is imperishable and his manager will need that quality in his dressing-room over the months ahead.
Particularly since Kieran will replace the outgoing Greg Taylor, now with PAOK in Greece.
It was another indication of Rodgers' dealings with his players that Taylor called him personally to break the news of his decision to reject the contract extension his manager was so keen for him to sign.
Over two spells in charge at Celtic, Rodgers has shown himself to be invaluable based on his influence within the club as well as the trophies won.
The manager has now discussed incoming players and outgoing favourites but not his own plans for the future.
It's now difficult to see how he can do that. If he intends to leave next summer, a public announcement of that fact would cast a shadow over what is to come.
And Rodgers would want to avoid negativity on that scale because of the effect it would have on players and fans.
At the end of the day he, like the rest of us, is entitled to do what he believes to be best for him and his family.
Because he, like the rest of us, has recently been given cause to understand the precious nature of life and the advisability of establishing priorities.