Brendan Rodgers repeats training trick at Celtic with Steven Gerrard ally as he returns Vicente del Bosque favour

Brendan Rodgers lended a helping hand to recently sacked Preston boss Ryan Lowe by inviting him to watch his Celtic side train ahead of Saturday's top of the table clash with Aberdeen.

Lowe landed the gig at Preston after leading Plymouth Argyle to promotion to League One in 2019, but after three years at the helm of the English Championship club lost his job on the opening day of the current season in the wake of a 2-0 defeat to Stoke. It's not the first time the former striker has found the help and guidance of a Premiership boss, having struck up a friendship with former Rangers gaffer and fellow Scouser Steven Gerrard while he was still managing Plymouth.

In November 2021, Lowe revealed that he asked for the Liverpool icon's opinion when he was offered the job at Preston. He said: "When the call came [from Preston], I rang him and said ‘look, what do you think?’, he said ‘what are you ringing me for, it’s a no-brainer isn’t it? I was like ‘yeah but the love and affection you have for a club sticks with you’, that’s what I had at the time at Plymouth Argyle, he had the same Rangers."

Rodgers gesture might appear to be nothing more than support for an out-of-work manager hoping to get back on the horse, but the Irishman was in fact returning the favour from watching legendary Spanish boss Vicente del Bosque up close in the early days of his own managerial career. The then 39-year-old had just guided Swansea City to a 11th place finish in their first season in the English top-flight since 1983 when he was invited to watch reigning World Cup and European champions Spain train ahead of Euro 2012 as a guest of del Bosque.

Rodgers - who speaks fluent Spanish - later reflected on his four days in Austria watching the likes