Brendan Rodgers’s Celtic desk could be a footballing version of a UNESCO heritage site

Andrew H on Brendan creating record after record

Celtic’s early voyaging in the Scottish Premiership this season has been serene. So serene, indeed, that as close as you can find to any sirens comes through tempting fate by finding it impossible to avoid the conviction that domestic serenity ought to be semi-permanent.

Which brings us on to Saturday’s hosting of Hearts. And the possibility of those of us inside our footballing cathedral witnessing a feat no fellow supporters still walking God’s good earth has ever seen. It was in 1906 that Celtic last kept clean sheets in each of their first five league games, as they will attempt to bring up when facing the Tynecastle club at the weekend. And with Brendan Rodgers at the club’s helm, you simply cannot discount them racking up the landmark.

For the simple reason that racking up landmarks is what the Irishman does in a Celtic capacity. So readily, frankly, that his manager’s desk at the club deserves the footballing equivalent of UNESCO heritage site status. Just think. There was nothing truly vintage about last season’s league and Scottish Cup double. There was, though, huge significance to the banking of the two hulks of silverware. Never before in the annals of the game in this country had a club ever won 12 out of 13 championships, as Rodgers made sure came to pass. And in defeating Rangers that May day at Hampden, the 51-year-old ensured Celtic became the first club to win Scotland’s oldest trophy six times across eight years.

The desire by some to excise, practically, Rodgers’ Celtic incredible achievements when he disappeared to Leicester City in February 2019 upset me greatly, I must say. As did the toxicity that enveloped the club over the failure to land the 10 two-and-a-bit years later. I felt then it was a juncture to take stock and remind of just what a glittering era it had been. In the main, on account of what Rodgers presided over in Glasgow. So I collated the outstanding feats Celtic had strung together over the previous decade for an article for The Scotsman. I thought it was right I send Rodgers a link to the piece and he quickly responded with gratitude for me doing so. Looking at them now, the gratitude is owed by those of us who love Celtic doing special Celticy things. As they subsequently added to in the immediate aftermath of Rodgers’ first spell with Neil Lennon moving them on to a quadruple treble unprecedented in world football for national competitions, before Ange Postecoglou added his sprinkle with the 2020-21 clean sweep that placed Celtic on the unrivalled eight total for such achievement.

But it is UNESCO-style Brendan that merits recalling for a domestically faultless two-and three-quarter years first stint just as Saturday offers the potential of a small, but notable landmark, being added to his mighty list.     

Let’s not forget that no Scottish team had ever won back-to-back trebles before Celtic completed that feat between 2016-17 and 2017-18. Or that Celtic’s run of 69 domestic matches unbeaten between 15 May 2016 and 13 December 2017 is the longest such sequence in British football history. A total of 59 of those games came in the top-flight, making it the longest such run in Scotland for 100 years, with Willie Maley’s Celtic holding the overall record for their 62 game top-flight unbeaten streak between 20 November 1915 and 21 April 1917.

Then there is Celtic’s unbeaten treble of 2016-17 being a monumental one-off. There have been no other such ‘invincibles’ among the 15 trebles across the annals of the Scottish game. It is worth remembering it took 47 games to navigate the whole domestic season without loss. Meanwhile, Celtic remaining undefeated across the 38 league games of the 2016-17 season was a first for the modern age, with their 34 wins and four draws harvesting a record points haul of 106.

The Irishman is the only manager in the history of Scottish football to win his first seven trophies; and the first man to win seven straight honours all in. Ach, hang it, let’s tempt fate again and say  that this season he has the chance to take his total to 12, to sit behind only Willie Maley, on 32, and the incomparable Jock Stein, on 25.  It would be some company to keep. And safe to say that Rodgers returned to Celtic last June precisely to do so. Of course, what is missing from his CV is a European dimension to his notable feats. It is equally safe to say that was his other reason for coming back 16 months ago. Delivering on that front in the eight-game Champions League campaign that will bring Slovan Bratislava to Glasgow next Wednesday is imperative. The opener against a team who will then be taking their bow in the competition is unquestionably the most winnable game Celtic have had at this level across Rodgers’ two spells. And, wouldn’t you know, it has its own landmark potential as Celtic have never won their first game in a Champions League group phase across their 12 previous such sorties. Hint, hint, Brendan…