Brendan Rodgers Celtic pre-season address in full as boss demands 'sacrifice and commitment' from returning stars

Sacrifice and commitment. The two words Brendan Rodgers was keen to stress to his players when they returned for pre-season training.

It feels like the summer has flown in but Celtic's first friendly is nearly upon us as the Premiership champions travel to face Scott Brown's Ayr United on Friday night. Last season was a long one that ended in success with another league and Scottish Cup added to the cabinet but Rodgers pressed the reset button at Thursday's first session at Lennoxtown - and challenged the players to make 2024/25 another exciting one for the fans.

The Hoops have two friendlies on home soil against Ayr and Queen's Park before jetting off to the States where they'll face DC United, Chelsea and Man City in a run of glamour clashes to ramp up for the big kickoff. And Rodgers is demanding nothing but 100 per cent from troops who were back in session on week one. Here's every word he had to say in his first Celtic TV interview of pre-season.

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"Yes, it's absolutely brilliant to be back. We had a great end to the season, I think everybody enjoyed the off-season. But it's really nice to be back, and good to see the players and the staff again."

"At that point (the end of last season), it was really about enjoying that present time about winning. We saw that in the Scottish Cup Final when I got all the guys in on that line to get a real sense of that present moment. Maybe before that, it sometimes can pass you by. But then that's gone. You take the acclaim, a fantastic end to the season, go away and recover, but now you come back and you re-focus. It's all about sacrifice and commitment going forward. It's about