BRENDAN RODGERS CONTINUES to be billed as a potential successor to Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, but the Celtic boss is in no rush to return to the Premier League.
The Northern Irishman has previously worked in the English top-flight with Swansea and Liverpool – carrying the Reds agonisingly close to title glory in 2013-14.
He is now flourishing in Scotland, with records and trophies aplenty collected during a productive stint at Parkhead.
Rodgers’ efforts have earned him a link to Arsenal – with it being suggested that a vacancy could soon open up at Emirates Stadium – but the 45-year-old is reluctant to step back into a pressurised environment which sees managers given less freedom than he currently enjoys in Glasgow.
Quizzed on the Gunners rumours by the Daily Mail, Rodgers said: “If you’re happy, ultimately that’s all that matters.
“The money’s irrelevant. You can have X amount of pounds in your bank every month but if you’re not happy and you’re not finding peace in what you’re doing, it doesn’t really matter.
“I love the Premier League, the quality of the players, the quality of the coaches. There are great challenges. But there are arms and legs flying off managers down there.
“You can come here and my genuine love is improving people and making them better, helping the club improve and getting the chance to develop and win things and see people improve. Or do you go somewhere where you might have six games? That wouldn’t make me happy. So it’s a Catch 22.
“I came here because I was asked by the major shareholder, Dermot Desmond, to be the architect of the club. I don’t have to control absolutely everything because it is very difficult to do that now in the modern game. I don’t need that.
“But I just want to work with good people that have one vision for the team and the club and that is what I have here. I’m not in any rush to come away from that.
“Celtic are one of the great clubs of the world. There’s a pressure here that’s different. You have to win every game. There’s not a club in England that has that. You can go to Old Trafford as Liverpool manager and get a draw and it’s not a bad result.
“At Celtic, there’s an expectancy to win home and away. I’ve been 10 years as a manager now and I’ve done a lot of learning. The biggest thing you can have as a football manager is happiness and energy. Sometimes, if you are doing OK, people tend to want to move you. It’s the way it is.”
Rodgers added on his future plans, which he concedes are likely to lie away from Celtic: “I’m in a position where I’m in my dream job.
“As a guy from Northern Ireland who supported Celtic and worked in football, I’m living my dream here. I want to work through until I’m 60 and get to a thousand games and I probably know I won’t do the other 500-odd games here at Celtic.
“I know how quickly it can all change. I nearly won the title at Liverpool and everybody’s saying, ‘Sign him up’, then very quickly I was out. Now I stay calm with it and never be complacent and do the best I can for the club.
“Winning is winning as a football manager and wherever that is, that feeling doesn’t change.”
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Not sure any Arsenal fans would entertain him getting the job either
@Paul Parker: good. Leave him with us. I’m sure Arsenal can get someone else in who they will sack after 4 months like a lot of clubs in the Arab American oil premier league.
@Ciaran Rice: considering arsenal have had the same manager for 22 years
@Mel Roberts: those days are gone now. You will never see that again.
@Ciaran Rice: won’t see it up north either. As soon as a premiership club come calling the brodge will leave
As a Liverpool fan thats the most sense ive heard him speak in an age. Hes obviously taken stock of himself and developed some form of self awareness. Fair play if he stays out.
@Darach Malone: Don’t get the issue some people have with Brendan Rogers, he took an average Swansea and got them promoted as the first Welsh side ever to play in the Premier league and then went onto play a lovely brand of football while establishing Swansea in the top flight, taking points off the likes of Liverpool, spurs and Chelsea etc. He’s one of the best managers to emerge from this island in modern times. We should be celebrating his successes.
Everybody was putting their clocks forward last night except Liverpool fans who are still trying to put it back 30 years hahahahahaha
In other words; of course i would take Arsenal job if offered…..
Of course he has a dream job in Scotland as he doesn’t need people to believe his bullshit as Celtic are winning all the time
@Ragman: you clearly don’t pay attention. Celtic and Rodgers have come in for plenty of flak this season and on an almost weekly basis.
@Ciaran Rice: you’re right I don’t as it’s a shit league but as long as they keep winning it the fans won’t care
@Ragman: That literally makes no sense. Are they supposed to be unhappy at winning it?
A usually reliable german site is claiming ex-Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel has already signed for the Arsenal job:
http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/intligen/startseite/720202/artikel_bayern-absage_tuchel-wechselt-zum-fc-arsenal.html
Asenal customers are gas. The win several games and they are happy.They lose a few games and they are hiring planes to fly ” Wenger out ” slogans. Gas.