Brendan Rodgers explains Celtic chain that provided manager return temptation that Premier League couldn't offer

He's honest enough to admit a period of soul searching was required. Maybe even some high level cajoling. And a long lunch with Callum McGregor.

But, in the end, Brendan Rodgers found the lure of a sensational return to Celtic Park, just too strong to turn down. And yesterday, the deal was sealed when the man who set this club off on a blitz of domestic clean sweeps, was officially paraded at the start of this, his second term in the manager’s office. Granted times have changed. Back in 2016 they were queuing up in the car park, just to get a glimpse of him. It was estimated that around 13,000 fans had swooped on the place - so many that they had to open up three stands to accommodate his adoring public.

Yesterday, there were no more than a few hundred milling around outside as Rodgers faced the media for the first time and began the process of soothing some of the hurt which followed his flit-in-the-night to Leicester back in 2019. And that hurt works both ways. Because, while Rodgers admits that he caused their pain by leaving town in the manner he did, the Northern Irishman and wife Charlotte, were also left with significant scar tissue.

From mean spirited banners to masked men breaking into the family home, it could be reasonably argued that Rodgers is due an apology of his own, never mind obligated to say sorry for the way it all ended.

“Someone said about me leaving Celtic in the lurch and I said, ‘Yes, it’s some lurch!’,” he smiled having laid down the foundations for a quadruple treble in his three years in charge

He now replaces Ange Postecoglou off the back of yet another immaculate trophy haul. And Rodgers went on: “That’s the emotion of it, it was a sad time because it happened quickly and people were